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THE 


HEATHEN  KELIGION 


IN  ITS 


f  oplar  rnxia  ^pthliral  gUklflpunt 


BY 


REV.  JOSEPH    B.    GROSS 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND   COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,   OHIO: 
JEWETT,  PEOCTOE  AND   WOETHINGTON. 

NEW  YORK  :  SHELDON,  LAMPORT  AND  BLAKEMAN. 

1856. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND  COMPANY, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE   : 

ALLEN    AND    FARNHAil,    STEREOTYPERS    AND    PRINTERS. 


DEDICATION, 


TO       YOU, 


WHOSE  INTELLIGENCE  RAISES  YOU  ABOVE   VULGAR  PREJUDICES', 

WHOSE  JUDGMENT   IS   ENLIGHTENED, 

AND    WHOSE    OPINION    MERITS    RESPECT, 

THE  FOLLOWING  PAGES, 

ILLUSTRATING  AN    INTERESTING    AND    IMPORTANT    BRANCH   OF  nUMAJ* 

KNOWLEDGE  AS  DISPLAYED  IN  ALL  AGES  OF  THE  WORLD 

IN  CERTAIN   STAGES  OF  MENTAL  CULTURE, 

AND   DESERVING   THE 

PROFOUND   ATTENTION   OF   THE   CnRISTLIN  AND   THE   SCHOLAR, 

ARE   RESPECTFULLY   INSCRIBED    BY 


THE    AUTHOE. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Perhaps  on  no  subject  within  the  ample  range  of  human 
knowledge,  have  so  many  fallacious  ideas  been  propagated  as 
upon  that  of  the  gods  and  the  worship  of  heathen  antiquity. 
Nothing  but  a  shameful  ignorance,  a  pitiable  prejudice,  or  the 
most  contemptible  pride,  which  denounces  all  investigations  as  a 
useless  or  a  criminal  labor,  when  it  must  be  feared  that  they  will 
result  in  the  overthrow  of  preestablished  systems  of  faith,  or  the 
modification  of  long  cherished  principles  of  science,  can  have  thus 
misrepresented  the  theology  of  heathenism,  and  distorted  —  nay, 
caricatured  —  its  forms  of  religious  worship.  It  is  time  that  pos- 
terity should  raise  its  voice  in  vindication  of  violated  truth,  and 
that  the  present  age  should  learn  to  recognize  in  the  hoary  past 
at  least  a  little  of  that  common  sense  of  which  it  boasts  with  as 
much  self-complacency,  as  if  the  prerogative  of  reason  was  the 
birthright  only  of  modern  times. 

In  our  researches  into  the  religion  of  the  heathens,  a  just  regard 
to  truth  requires  that  a  proper  distinction'should  be  made  between 
its  successive  stages  of  development,  as  well  as  between  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  society  by  whom  it  was  professed.  In  the  earlier 
ages  of  the  world,  the  universe  could  not  be  contemplated  by  the 
untutored  mind  of  man,  as  the  sole  production  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  as  he  was  incapable  of  reasoning  a  posteriori ;  and  it  was 
reserved  for  the  Novum  Organum  of  a  Lord  Bacon,  in  more  recent 


(v) 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

times,  to  point  out  the  inductive  way,  which  leads  through  nature 
up  to  nature's  God.  All  the  objects  and  phenomena  in  the  visible 
world  were  then  not  only  considered  to  be  animate  and  preter- 
natural, but  also  to  be  endowed  with  divinitv,  and  as  beino-  either 
good  or  bad ;  and  therefore  propitious  or  adverse  to  the  interests 
of  mankind :  all  nature  teemed  with  fetiches,  and  resounded  with 
oracular  communications.  Polytheism  and  idolatry  were  the  im- 
mediate and  necessary  consequences  of  these  erroneous  ideas; 
and  they  who  best  understood  how  to  interpret  the  mysteries  of 
nature,  or  were  the  most  devout  and  zealous  in  the  observance  of 
the  duties  which  they  enjoined,  were  by  common  consent  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  priests  —  the  consecrated  mediators  between 
the  gods  and  their  votaries.  At  a  more  advanced  stage  of  moral 
and  intellectual  culture,  this  theological  system  of  the  infantine 
mind  —  the  pantheism  of  the  primeval  ages,  was  subjected  to  a 
severe  logical  scrutiny,  and  metaphysical  induction  at  last  predi- 
cated the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  as  the  author  and  gov- 
ernor of  all  things. 

From  this  period,  the  gods  of  the  priests  and  sages  resolved 
themselves  into  the  attributes  and  manifestations  of  the  Eternal, 
and  henceforth  ceased  to  exist  as  independent  beings ;  while  in 
the  popular  creed,  connived  at  by  the  better  informed,  they  con- 
tinued to  enjoy  their  ancient  prerogatives,  and  to  maintain  their 
accustomed  influence.  Different  names  distinguished  the  Supreme 
Being,  according  to  the  various  nations   and   languages   amonsf 

CJ'  CD  CD  O  © 

whom  he  was  recognized  and  adored.  Thus  among  the  Egyp- 
tians, he  was  denominated  Kneph ;  among  the  Persians,  Zeruane 
Akerene ;  among  the  Hindoos,  Parabrahma ;  among  the  Phoe- 
nicians, Greeks,  and  Romans,  Chronos  or  Saturn  —  the  Absolute 
in  the  fathomless  immensity  of  time ;  and  among  the  Scandina- 
vians, Surtur,  or  the  God  in  statu  dbscondito.  The  attributes  and 
cosmic  manifestations  of  the  Supreme  Being, were  personified  or 
considered  as  so  many  gods  or  divine  hypostases ;  for  those  an- 


INTRODUCTION.  VII 

cicnt  metaphysicians  seemed  to  have  reasoned  somewhat  after  this 
manner :  "  The  Supreme  Being  has  attributes  or  qualities  which 
collectively  make  up  his  being ;  hence,  as  he  would  not  be  the 
Supreme  Being  if  any  of  these  accessorios  were  wanting,  it  fol- 
lows that  each  one  of  them  must  be  the  Supreme  Being,  because 
each  one  includes  or  re-quires  all  the  rest  to  complete  the  idea  of 
such  a  being."  The  first  evolutions  or  attributal  manifestations 
of  the  Supreme  Being  became  the  parents  or  prolific  source  of 
other  evolutions ;  and  thus  there  were  as  many  divinities  as  there 
were  distinct  categories  of  qualities  or  powers  in  the  physical  and 
spiritual  worlds.  These  powers  or  qualities  were  further  contem- 
plated as  masculine  or  feminine,  or  as  begetting  and  conceiving 
and  bearing.  Thus  ether,  the  atmosphere,  light,  fire,  the  sun, 
winds  and  storms,  fear,  virtue,  etc.,  were  gods ;  and  the  moon,  the 
earth,  the  night,  the  morning,  the  seasons  of  spring,  summer,  and 
autumn,  wisdom,  faith,  justice,  etc.,  were  goddesses. 

These  emanated  divinities,  or  God  manifested  in  the  laws  and 
phenomena  of  the  universe  and  their  worship,  constituted  the  re- 
ligious system  of  the  civilized  societies  of  antiquity,  and  had  the 
sanction  of  the  State :  it  comprised  the  transition  state  between 
the  crude  religious  notions  of  the  primitive  ages,  and  the  elaborate 
metaphysical  creed  of  the  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  God,  of 
creation,  and  of  providence.  Among  the  deities  who  thus  gov- 
erned the  world,  were  also  its  architects,  or  demiurgusses ;  as 
Jupiter,  Osiris,  Ormuzd,  and  Brahma :  Surtur,  or  the  God  in 
statu-abscondito  —  the  hidden  God,  introduced  the  creation  of  the 
world  himself,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  Scandinavian  cosmogony, 
after  which  he  consigned  to  Odin  and  his  two  brothers  its  further 
development  and  completion.  The  theogonic  and  theological  sys- 
tems of  the  ancient  Persians,  as  far  as  Ormuzd  and  his  congeneric 
divinities  are  concerned,  may  serve  as  a  type  of  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  intermedial  religious  creed  of  the  ancients.     Ormuzd 

© 

—  light,  goodness,  in  whom  are  united  the  three  primordial,  ethe- 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

real  elements  of  light,  fire,  and  water,  emanated  from  Zeruane 
Akerene,  who  created  him  by  simply  pronouncing  the  logos  or 
living  word  Honover:  enohe  verihe — I  am,  or  be  it.  "  Ormuzd," 
writes  Blackwell,*  "created  the  universe  by  pronouncing  the 
living  word  Honover ;  first  his  own  abode  of  light,  Sakhter,  and 
then  the  Genii,  or  deities  of  Light,  in  three  classes.  The  first  class 
consists  of  the  seven  Amshaspands,  Ormuzd  himself  being  includ- 
ed in  the  number ;  the  others  are  Bahman,  the  genius  of  the  re- 
gion of  light ;  Ardibehesht,  the  genius  of  ethereal  fire ;  Shariver, 
the  genius  of  metals ;  Sapandomad,  the  creatrix,  or  rather  source, 
of  fruitfulness ;  Khordad,  the  genius  of  time ;  and  Amerdad,  the 
tutelary  genius  of  the  vegetable  world,  and  of  flocks  and  herds. 
In  the  second  class  are  the  twenty-seven  Izeds,  male  and  female. 
These  are  the  elementary  deities,  as  Khorshid,  the  sun ;  Mali,  the 
moon ;  Tashter,  the  dog-star,  also  the  deity  of  rain ;  Rapitan,  the 
deity  of  heat,  etc. ;  and  were  probably  those  worshipped  before 
the  popular  belief  was  not  only  thus  reduced  into  a  system  like 
the  Scandinavian,  but  refined  to  a  high  degree  of  intellectuality 
by  the  philosophical  and  ethical  doctrines  ingrafted  on  it.  The 
third  class  consists  of  the  Fervers :  these  are  the  vivifying  princi- 
ples of  nature,  the  ideal  types  of  the  material  universe,  correspond- 
ing in  a  great  measure  to  the  ideas  of  Plato.  In  heaven  they 
ke*ep  watch  against  Ahriman  and  his  host ;  on  earth  they  combat 
against  the  Genii  of  evil.  Every  one,  even  Ormuzd  himself,  has 
his  Ferver.  An  Iranite  has  thus  constantly  by  his  side  his  ideal 
type,  or  uncorrupted  immaterial  image,  to  guide  him  through  life 
and  preserve  him  from  evil." 

It  was  the  symbolical  representation  of  this  intermedial  theolog- 
ical system  that  so  extensively  engrossed  the  attention,  and  elicit- 
ed the  ingenuity  and  skill  of  the  Mero-artists  of  antiquity.     Nor 

*  A  Critical  Examination  of  the  Leading  Doctrines  of  the  Scandinavian 
System  of  Mythology,  in  his  Edition  of  Mallet's  Northern  Antiquities. 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

was  the  labor  bestowed  upon  this  branch  of  human  speculation 
vain,  or  unworthy  the  genius  of  mankind,  as  it  promoted  the  inter- 
ests of  science ;  developed  arts,  the  perfection  of  which  modern 
times  have  not  succeeded  in  surpassing ;  illustrated  the  character, 
the  relations,  and  the  functions  of  the  gods ;  and  responded,  at 
least  to  some  extent,  to  the  moral  wants  and  spiritual  aspirations 
of  the  people  of  that  age. 

To  explain  the  apparent  enigma  in  the  moral  and  physical 
world,  of  the  existence  of  evil  in  antagonism  with  goodness,  the 
heathen  sages,  especially  those  among  the  Oriental  nations,  found- 
ed a  theodike,*  which  still  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  re- 
ligious creeds  of  a  numerous  class  of  mankind,  and  which  is  now, 
as  it  was  then,  regarded  as  a  satisfactory  solution  of  this  abstruse 
cosmic  and  psychological  problem,  as  well  as  a  most  effectual  vin- 
dication of  the  character  of  God :  it  is  the  doctrine  of  fallen  sj)irits, 
who  either  sinned  through  their  own  spontaneity,  or  were  tempted 
into  rebellion  by  others.  Loki,  among  the  Scandinavians ;  Ahri- 
man,  among  the  Persians ;  Moisasure,  among  the  Hindoos ;  Ty- 
phon,  among  the  Egyptians,  etc.,  led  the  van  in  this  retrogressive 
and  diabolical  movement. 

A  brief  outline  of  the  nature  and  actions  of  a  few  of  these 
princes  of  evil  may  suffice  to  illustrate  the  doctrine  of  the  kako- 
theoi  among  the  ancients.  In  the  Edda,  according  to  the  Northern 
Antiquities,  Loki  is  described  as  the  grand  contriver  of  deceit  and 
frauds ;  as  the  calumniator  of  the  gods ;  and  as  the  reproach  of 
both  gods  and  men.  His  figure  is  represented  to  be  very  comely, 
while  his  mind  is  so  depraved,  that  he  surpasses  all  mortals  in  the 
arts  of  craft  and  perfidy.  Though  Loki  is  so  beautiful  a  devil,  no 
one  presumes  to  render  divine  honors  to  the  fallen  god.     Sin  is 

*  The  justification  of  God  on  account  of  the  evil  which  exists  in  the 
world.  Can  there  be  virtue  or  moral  goodness  without  an  ethical  com- 
bat?   Reason  and  experience  answer — No! 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

prolific,  and  this  Norse-personification  of  the  evil  principle  is  said 
to  be  the  parent  of  a  numerous  progeny  as  malignant  as  himself. 
After  order  and  harmony  had  reigned  for  a  long  time  in  the  world 
of  spirits,  Moisasure,  the  Hindoo  satan,  grew  envious  of  Brahma's 
resplendent  light,  and,  aided  by  a  prodigious  number  of  inferior 
evil  spirits,  boldly  renounced  his  fealty  to  Brahma.  In  vain  did 
the  god  of  light  and  truth  endeavor  to  instil  better  principles  into 
their  debased  minds,  and,  if  possible,  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion. The  rebel  host,  bent  upon  the  annihilation  of  the  rival  em- 
pire, resorted  to  arms  —  the  last  expedient  of  tyrants  —  and  began 
to  wane  a  fierce  and  unrelenting  war  against  Brahma  and  his 
faithful  adherents.  To  chastise  their  insolent  audacity,  Siva,  the 
third  person  in  the  Hindoo  trinity,  hurled  them  from  heaven  into 
Onderah,  the  abyss  of  darkness.  Here  they  repented  of  their 
evil  deeds,  and  means  for  their  final  restitution  were  provided ; 
under  what  conditions,  and  with  what  success,  will  be  seen  when 
we  come  to  .speak  of  future  judgment. 

The  Greeks  and  other  nations  had  not  only  their  Titans  and 
giants,  but  also  their  good  and  evil  genii  or  demons,  who  belonged 
to  the  train  or  category  of  the  inferior  gods.  If  we  reflect  that 
among  the  ancients  knowledge  was  not  so  universally  diffused  as 
it  is  at  the  present  da)',  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  confined 
to  the  few  whose  social  position  or  professional  duties  encouraged 
or  demanded  its  acquisition,  we  may  venture  to  assert  that  the 
symbolical  garniture  under  which  the  gods  and  the  religion  of 
antiquity  were  represented,  was  generally  either  little  understood 
or  erroneously  interpreted  by  the  multitude ;  and  that  even  many 
among  the  better  informed  laymen  could  give  but  a  sorry  account 
of  the  evidences  upon  which  their  hope  or  their  faith  was  based. 
As  long  as  the  interests  of  the  priesthood  were  properly  guarded, 
and  a  laudable  spirit  of  emulation  or  of  public  usefulness  prompted 
its  members  to  scientific  researches,  there  was  no  danger  that  the 
key  which  alone  could  unlock  the  mysteries  which  enveloped  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

religious  faith  and  ritual  service  of  the  heathens,  would  be  lost,  or 
that  religion  itself  should  cease  to  flourish.  Such,  history  informs 
us,  has  been  the  case.  In  the  course  of  ages,  however,  a  different 
fate  awaited  the  indefatigable  founders  of  the  vast  and  stately 
structure  which  composed  the  intermedial  theological  system  of 
the  heathen  church.  Now  oppressed  by  tyranny  or  dissolved  in 
sloth  and  luxury ;  involved  in  the  devastating  and  disorganizing 
tendencies  of  repeated  and  protracted  wars,  perhaps  carried  off  as 
captives  from  their  altars,  their  gods,  and  their  people,  in  the  bar- 
baric train  of  some  haughty  conqueror ;  infidelity  gradually  infect- 
ing the  semi-enlightened  upper  ranks  of  society,  and  generating 
the  numerous  vices  incident  to  an  irreligious  state  of  the  mind, 
the  integrity  of  the  public  system  of  religion  became  seriously 
affected ;  piety  rapidly  declined,  and  faith  lost  its  accustomed 
stimulus.  They  who  had  devised  and  perpetuated  through  a  long 
course  of  ages  the  intricate  theories  of  physical  and  metaphysical 
personifications  and  allegory,  and  had  so  successfully  applied  to 
them  the  ingenious  system  of  hieroglyphical  representations  and 
symbolical  interpretations,  at  last  lost  or  undervalued  the  knowl- 
edge of  their  science,  ceased  to  exist  as  a  distinct  or  privileged 
body  in  the  social  organization,  or  could  no  longer  stem  the  tide 
of  corruption  that  everywhere  threatened  to  overwhelm  an  insti- 
tution which  required  the  combined  wisdom  and  power  of  its 
founders,  and  the  unimpaired  faith  and  zeal  of  the  people,  to  pre- 
serve it  inviolate.  Need  we  marvel  that  the  ignorant  multitude, 
no  longer  guided  by  the  voice,  or  instructed  by  the  example  of 
the  priests  of  former  times ;  deprived  of  the  sympathy  of  the 
higher  classes,  or  vitiated  through  the  corrupting  influence  of 
their  licentious  manners,  should  eventually  mistake  the  sign  for 
the  object  which  it  was  intended  to  symbolize,  and  once  more  — 
as  was  the  case  in  primeval  ages  —  literally  worship  icood  and 
stone  as  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  all  that  remained  to  them  of  their 
faith  and  of  their  gods  ?     Need  any  be  surprised  that  under  such 


Xll  INTRODUCTION. 


unpropitious  circumstances,  the  neglected  and  downtrodden  vota- 
ries of  heathenism  should  have  committed  all  kinds  of  pious  follies 
and  religious  extravagances,  and  at  last  brought  merited  disgrace 
upon  the  religion  which  they  professed  ? 

Impartial  justice  demands  that  we  should  not  estimate  the  merits 
of  an  institution  by  its  corruptions  and  abuses,  but  by  its  pristine 
and  normal  character.  The  history  of  the  Christian  church,  an 
institution  still  in  its  infancy,  incontestably  shows  how  easily  the 
most  superstitious  and  the  most  flagrant  corruptions  may  gradually 
insinuate  themselves  into  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  professors 
of  even  the  most  holy  and  Godlike  religion ;  and  how  unfair  it 
would  be  to  reproach  the  Christian  religion  with  the  impropri- 
eties and  follies  of  its  disciples.  .While  therefore  some  palliation 
is  allowed  to  be  due  to  the  imperfections  in  the  Christian  church, 
and  a  distinction  is  to  be  carefully  made  between  the  doctrines 
of  the  gospel  and  the  lives  of  the  Christians,  let  us  but  judge 
heathenism  on  the  same  discriminating  principle ;  make  some 
allowance  for  the  age  and  the  state  of  human  society  in  which  it 
flourished  or  decayed,  and  we  shall  do  justice  to  truth,  justice  to 
ourselves,  and  justice  to  Divine  Providence. 

Fayette,  February,  1854. 


Note.  —  In  the  preparation  of  the  present  work,  the  author  has  had 
occasion  to  make  extensive  use  of  the  researches  of  some  of  his  pred- 
ecessors, to  whom  reference  could  not  always  be  made  with  conven- 
ience, and  whose  services  to  him  therefore  claim  a  proper  recognition 
in  this  place.  Accordingly,  he  gratefully  acknowledges  his  indebted- 
ness to  Professor  Creuzer's  voluminous  and  erudite  work  under  the 
title  of  the  Symbplik  und  Mythologic  der  alten  Volker  besonders  der 
Griechen ;  to  Doctor  Mone's  Geschichte  des  HeiSentsums  im  Nord- 
lichen  Europa  ;  and  to  the  authors  of  the  Northern  Antiquities,  espec- 
ially to  J.  A.  Blackwell,  Esq. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK    I. 

THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION  IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.' 


SECTION  I. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  IN  THE  HUMAN 
MIND,  AND  THE  LIGHT  IN  WHICH  RELIGIOUS  OBJECTS 
ARE    CONTEMPLATED. 

Chapter  I.    Eeligious  Ideas Page  3 

II.   The  Light  in  which   Religious  Objects  are   Con- 
templated   8 

SECTION  n. 

THE  TOPOGRAPHY  OF  RELIGIOUS  OBJECTS,  REGARDED  AS 
DEIFIED,  AND  THE  WORSHIP  WHICH  IS  BESTOWED  UPON 
THEM. 

Chap.   I.  The  Topography  of  Religious   Objects,   regarded   as 

Deified 16 

LI.  The  Worship  of  the  Gods 21 

SECTION  ILL 

SACRED   PLACES   AND   RELIGIOUS   FESTIVALS. 

Chap.  I.  Sacred  Places 36 

II.  Religious  Festivals 40 


'o 


B  (x111) 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


SECTION  IV. 

PRIESTS   AND   IDOLS. 

Chap.  I.  The  Priests 45 

H.  Idols '      .        .        .        54 

SECTION  V. 

THE    CLASSIFICATION  AND  RELATIVE   ANTIQUITY   OF    THE 

GODS. 

Chap.   I.  The  Classification  of  the  Gods      .        .        ...        .66 

II.  Their  relative  Antiquity 73 

SECTION  VL 

THE   NATURE    OR   ATTRIBUTES    OF    THE    GODS,   AND  THEIR 
MORAL  AND  PHYSICAL  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Chap.  I.  The  Nature  or  Attributes  of  the  Gods  .        .        .82 

II.  Their    Moral    and    Physical  Administration    of   the 

World 92 


SECTION  vn. 

THE  ORACLES,  DIVINATIONS  OR  AUGURIES,  AND  ARUS- 
PICY  OF  HEATHENISM,  AND  THE  FUTURE  JUDGMENT  OR 
REWARDS   AND   PUNISHMENT   DISPENSED  BY  THE  GODS. 

Chap.  I.  The  Oracles,  Divinations  or  Auguries,  and  Aruspicy 

of  Heathenism 99 

II.  The  Future  Judgment,  or  Eewards  and  Punishment 

dispensed  by  the  Gods         .        .        .  .      112 


BOOK    II.       * 

THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION  IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL 

DEVELOPMENT. 

Prologue 137 


CONTENTS.  XV 

DIVISION    I. 

THE    ASTRONOMICAL     GODS,     OR    PTIYSICO-ASTRONOII- 

ICAL    THEOLOGY. 

SECTION  L 

THE  ORIGLN  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Chap.  I.  Osiris  and  Isis,  Typhon  and  Nephthys,         .         .         .139 
Paragr.  I.  The   Interpretation  of  the   Myth,   or    the 

Egyptian  year 151 

H.  The  Symbology  of  the  Myth  .        .        .  159 
Chap.  II.  The  Concluding  Remarks  on  the  Personification  and 
Symbology  of  the  Egyptian  year,  considered  in 
its  Sidcral  and  Agrarian  Attributes     .         .         .169 

Paragr.  I.  Osiris 170 

II.  Hercules 174 

in.  Typhon 178 

Chap.  III.  The  Egyptian  Theory  of  the  World,  and  the  Wor- 
ship of  Sacred  Animals,  or  Hiero-Zoolatry          .  182 
Paragr.  I.  Their  Theory  of  the  World         .         .  182 
II.  The  Worship   of  Sacred   Animals,   or 

Hiero-Zoolatry 185 

section  n. 

THE  COSMOGONY  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  HLNDOOS. 

Chap.   I.  The  Cosmogony  of  the  Hindoos         .        .        .        .193 
II.  The  Theology  of  the  Hindoos  ....        198 

SECTION    HT. 

THE   RELIGIOUS    CREED    OF    THE    SCANDINAVIANS. 

Chap.   I.  The  Scandinavian  Deities.     Prologue         .        .        .211 
H.  The  Scandinavian  Gods  in  their  Planetary  Relations 

to  Mankind 225 

HI.  The  Scandinavian  Cosmogony        ....  228 

IV.  Asgard  and  the  Golden  Age 235 

V.  The  Providence  of  the  Scandinavian  Gods      .        .  238 
VI.  The  Yggdrasill,    the   Mundane  Snake,    the    World- 
mountains,  and  the  Pillars  and  Pyramids  of  the 

World 241 


XVI        •  CONTEXTS. 

Paragr.  I.  The  Yggdrasill  * 241 

II.  The  Yggdrasill  and  Nidhogg  illustrated 
from  the  doctrines  of  the  Grecian  and 
Oriental  Mythologies  of  the  Mundane 
Tree,  the  Mundane  Snake,  together  with 
an  investigation  of  the  "World-moun- 
tains, and  the  Pillars  and  Pyramids  of 
the  World 251 


DIVISION    II. 

THE  GODS  OF  THE  HEATHENS,  REPRESENTED  IN  MYTH- 
OLOGY AS  THE  MUNDANE  SOURCES  AND  DISPENSERS 
OF  LIGHT  AND  FIRE,  AND  CONSIDERED  IN  RELATION 
TO  THEIR  PNEUMATIUAL  ATTRIBUTES,  OR  TnEIR 
SPIRITUALITY,  AND  ETHICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL 
CHARACTER. 

SECTION  I 
THE   MITHRAS   AXX>    MITRA  OF    THE   PERSIANS  274 

SECTION  II. 

VESTA,  HER  FIRES  AND  PRIESTESSES  ;    ZEUS,    OR  JUPITER. 

Chap.   I.  Vesta,  her  Fires  and  Priestesses 290 

II.  Zeus,  or  Jupiter 301 

Paragr.  I.  The  Zeus,  or  Jupiter  of  the  People    .         .  303 

II.  The  Zeus,  or  Jupiter  of  the  Priests         .  315 


DIVISION     III. 
The  Olympic  Games 335 


DIVISION    IV. 
The  Eleusinian  Mysteries  ....    352 


BOOK    I. 


THE    HEATHEN    RELIGION 


IK   ITS 


POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT. 


SECTION  I. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF   RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  IN  THE  HUMAN 

MIND,  AND   THE  LIGHT  IN   WHICH    RELIGIOUS 

OBJECTS  ARE  CONTEMPLATED. 


CHAPTER    U 

RELIGIOUS     IDEAS. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the 
human  race,  is  the  universal  existence  of  religious 
ideas  :  a  belief  in  something  supernatural  and  divine, 
and  a  worship  corresponding  to  it.  The  account  of 
historians  and  travellers,  purporting  that  they  have 
met  with  savage  tribes  or  barbaric  nations,  who 
were  utterly  destitute  of  all  traces  of  religion,  must 
be  regarded  as  the  result  of  superficial  observation 
or  hasty  inference,  and  which  cannot,  therefore,  be 
admitted  as  an  exception  to  the  general  rule,  until 
it  shall  have  been  corroborated  by  future  investi- 
gations. To  wrhat  cause,  then,  is  this  decided  relig- 
ious element,  this  predominant  creed  of  mankind, 
in  a  sacred  principle  or  spiritual  power  that  is  every- 
where pervading  and  controlling  the  universe,  to  be 
ascribed?  Shallow  theorists  are  not  wanting,  who 
have  advanced  the  puerile  doctrine  that  the  heathen 
religion    owes   its    origin    and   influence   in  human 

(3) 


4      '  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

society  to  the  artful  devices  of  selfish  and  heartless 
demagogues,  who,  it  seems,  were  as  skilful  and  un- 
scrupulous in  the  manufacture  of  the  gods,  as  they 
were  successful  in  making  slaves  of  their  unsuspect- 
ing dupes.  "  Not  thus,"  cries  the  self-conceited  infi- 
del ;  "  priestcraft  has  practised  its  juggling  tricks,  and 
the  world  has  been  made  to  believe  a  lie,  and  to 
worship  a  phantom !  "  Such  hypotheses  are  too  evi- 
dently ludicrous  to  require  a  labored  refutation,  and 
I  need  but  state  that  though  religion  may  be  recog- 
nized and  developed,  it  can  never  be  produced  or 
originated  by  man;  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
just  as  natural  for  him  to  be  impressed  with  relig- 
ious convictions,  as  it  is  to  think  or  to  utter  articu- 
late sounds.  Carlyle,  having  remarked  that  quackery 
and  imposition  have  indeed  fearfully  abounded  in 
the  latter  and  corrupt  period  of  the  pagan  religion, 
adds :  "  But  quackery  was  never  the  originating 
influence  in  such  things ;  it  was  not  the  health  and 
life  of  such  things,  but  their  disease,  the  sure  pre- 
cursor of  their  being  about  to  die!  Let  as  never 
forget  this.  It  seems  to  me  a  most  mournful  hy- 
pothesis, that  of  quackery  giving  birth  to  any  faith, 
even  in  savage  men.  Quackery  gives  birth  to  noth- 
ing ;  gives  death  to  all,"  etc.  Some,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  not  hesitated  to  assert  a  supernatural 
revelation  as  the  primeval  source  of  all  the  diversi- 
fied forms  of  religion  that  have  prevailed  upon  the 
earth ;  and  that  the  knowledge  of  such  a  relation, 
communicated  to  an  individual,  or  a  people,  has 
been  gradually  and  successively  transmitted  to  the 
whole  human  family,  through  the  ductile  and  ever- 
widening  channel  of  tradition.    This  opinion,  though 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  O 

supported  by  an  array  of  respectable  names,  is  un- 
tenable, because  it  is  destitute  of  the  least  historical 
basis ;  and  because,  also,  the  Apostle  Paul,  whose 
authority  in  a  question  of  this  kind  no  one  will  pre- 
sume to  dispute,  lays  down  the  following  axiom  in 
direct  contradiction  to  the  theory  of  a  revelation 
antecedent  to  a  religious  manifestation  among  man- 
kind :  "  For,"  says  the  inspired  minister  of  the  Son 
of  God,  "  when  the  Gentiles,  who  have  not  the  law, 
do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these, 
having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves."  In 
a  more  extended  sense,  religion  may  be  properly  con- 
sidered as  the  result  of  supernatural  endowment, 
inasmuch  as  our  development  towards  perfection,  in 
which  the  religious  element  forms  an  integral  and 
essential  part,  is  a  revelation,  of  which  the  fertile 
germ  was  originally  implanted  in  the  human  breast 
by  the  Creator :  this  is  a  standing,  an  innate,  and  a 
growing  revelation,  responding  to  the  apocalypse  of 
God  in  nature,  and  manifesting  itself  among  all 
men  in  all  ages.  It  is  the  revelation  to  which  the 
sacred  writer,  already  referred  to,  thus  adverts  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Romans :  "  For  the  wrath  of  God  is 
revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and 
unrighteousness  of  men,  who  hold  the  truth  in  un- 
righteousness, because  that  which  may  be  known  of 
God  is  manifested  in  them ;  for  God  hath  showed  it 
unto  them ;  for  the  invisible  things  of  him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  under- 
stood by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal 
power  and  Godhead,  so  that  they  are  without  ex- 
cuse," etc.  Here  we  have  a  proof  of  the  revelation 
of  God  in  nature,  adapted  to  the  religious  faculties 

1* 


6  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

of  man,  stamped  upon  his  soul  by  the  Deity,  and 
designed  to  be  the  recipient  organs  of  divine  com- 
munications, through  the  laws  and  phenomena  of 
the  external  world ;  and  it  is  thus  that  man  ascends 
"  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God."  It  is  in  this 
manner  that  nature  becomes  the  oracle  of  God,  and 
that  her  ceaseless  and  constantly  augmenting  in- 
structions, gradually  impress  a  more  noble  and  per- 
fect image  of  the  Creator  upon  the  soul :  a  process 
of  human  development  which  is  the  common  birth- 
right of  our  race.  Of  this  apocalypse  of  the  Su- 
preme Being  to  mankind,  through  the  medium  of 
his  handiworks.,  Pope  thus  speaks  in  the  following 
pithy  and  elegant  stanza :  — 

"Nor  think,  in  nature's  state  they  blindly  trod; 
The  state  of  nature  was  the  reism  of  God." 

O 

Hence  the  incipient  part  of  religion,  or  religion  con- 
sidered genetically,  is  to  be  imputed  to  nature,  and, 
of  course,  to  God,  its  omnipotent  and  adorable 
author ;  but  viewed  in  its  subjective  form,  or  as  the 
fruit  of  human  spontaneity,  religion  owes  its  reflex 
origin,  its  practically  more  estimable  part,  to  the  re- 
productive energies  of  the  human  mind.  No  one 
who  has  any  knowledge  of  the  subject,  will  deny 
that  religion  is  as  materially  affected  by  climate  and 
the  genius  of  nations,  as  language  or  civil  institu- 
tions. Nor  can  we  overlook  the  modifying  and  con- 
trolling influences  which  different  degrees  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  character  of  the  soil,  the  quality  of  the 
food,  and  the  style  of  dress ;  the  amusements  and 
political  relations ;  the  state  of  education  and  of  the 
arts ;  a  warlike  spirit,  or  the  cultivation  of  peace  and 


IN    ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.         ,  7 

the  enjoyment  of  domestic  tranquillity ;  an  idle, 
erratic  life,  or  the  steady  and  peaceful  prosecution 
of  productive  industry,  must  exercise  over  the  nature, 
the  tendency,  and  the  importance  of  the  religious 
ideas,  which  distinguish  the  individual  or  the  nation. 
"  Hence  the  attempt,"  remarks  Kaiser,  in  his  bib- 
lisclie  Theolog-ie,  "  everywhere  to  find  the  same  my- 
thological divinities,  would  be  futile,  and  no  less 
incongruous  than  if  one  should  refer  the  epic  poems 
of  Homer  and  Virgil,  relating  to  Troy,  to  the  Jericho 
of  the  Jews,  or  the  Avaris  of  the  Egyptians."  A 
question  of  some  interest  is  the  inquiry,  What 
causes,  objectively  considered,  mainly  excite  the 
religious  faculties  of  the  soul,  and  inspire  acts  of 
devotion  ?  Timor  fecit  deos,  is  an  adage  of  classic 
celebrity,  yet  it  must  be  received  with  some  qualifi- 
cation ;  for  though  the  terrible  manifestations  of 
nature,  as  thunder  and  lightning,  earthquakes,  tem- 
pests, etc.,  impress  the  untutored  mind  with  senti- 
ments of  the  most  intense  alarm  and  anxiety,  and 
suggest  to  it  the  necessity  or  the  propriety  of  a  pro- 
pitiatory offering  to  the  offended  or  destructive  god, 
they  are  by  no  means  the  only  exciters  of  the  relig- 
ious principle,  but  constitute  a  mere,  though  impor- 
tant unit,  in  a  series  of  causes  resulting  in  the  same 
great  end.  Such,  for  instance,  are  all  those  striking 
displays  in  the  external  world,  which  create  wonder, 
surprise,  or  aversion;  fill  the  soul  with  delight  or 
gratitude  ;  overwhelm  it  with  a  sense  of  its  insignifi- 
cance and  helplessness ;  carry  conviction  of  guilt 
and  danger  to  a  slumbering  conscience ;  or  excite  a 
feeling  of  admiration  for  the  romantic  and  the  beau- 
tiful.   All  such,  and  similar  outward  causes,  conspire 


8  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

to  stimulate  the  soul  into  a  genial  sympathy;  to  call 
forth  in  it  the  reflections  and  emotions  which  will 
insure  its  religious  culture;  and  to  bring  it  into  a 
constantly  increasing  proximity  to  God.  Viewed 
subjectively,  we  may  enumerate  among  the  religious 
susceptibilities  of  our  race,  the  human  character 
contemplated  in  its  attribute  of  perfectibility;  our 
various  intellectual  faculties  and  moral  sentiments ; 
the  principle  of  self-preservation ;  the  desire  of 
knowledge,  and  the  use  of  language ;  the  social  pro- 
pensity, and  the  natural  and  irrepressible  instinct  to 
be  happy. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    LIGHT    IN    WHICH    RELIGIOUS    OBJECTS    ARE 

CONTEMPLATED. 

The  religious  history  of  our  race,  uninfluenced  by 
a  direct  revelation,  bears  very  striking  evidence  to 
the  fact  that  man,  in  the  infancy  of  his  mind,  and 
the  absence  of  a  wholesome  experience,  is  prone  to 
contemplate  most  of  the  objects  and  phenomena  of 
external  nature,  in  the  light  of  fetiches*  a  phrase 


*  Kaiser,  the  author  above  designated,  derives  the  term  fetich 
from  the  Portuguese  fetisso,  an  oracle  or  revelation  of  the  gods, 
and  makes  it  synonymous  with  fatum  or  fate,  which  is  deduced 
from /an,  to  speak,  and  signifies  an  oracle,f  as  also  the  order  and 

f  Fatum  est  quod  dii  fentur. 


IX   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  9 

which  at  once  implies  an  idol  and  an  oracle,  and 
which  denotes  something  that  enchants  or  charms, 
not  something  that  is  enchanted  or  charmed,  as  is 
sometimes  erroneously  taught,  and  which  —  forcibly 
attracting  the  attention,  inspires  man  with  senti- 
ments of  religious  awe,  while  it  suggests  to  him  the 
propriety  of  a  suitable  homage  ;  and  therefore  the 
part  which  he  acts  in  this  sacred  drama,  may  like- 
wise be  denominated  a  fascination  or  charm.  For 
his  childish  theory  of  physical  nature,  plainly  pre- 
mises an  extraordinary  reciprocal  influence  between 
the  laws  and  manifestations  of  the  external  world 
and  himself.  The  objects  and  phenomena  of  nature 
being  generally  regarded  by  him,  not  only  as  ani- 
mate and  sentient,  but  also  as  endowed  with  thought, 
passion,  and  the  gift  of  speech ;  and  as  being  either 
of  a  beneficent  or  of  a  hostile  character.  According 
to  his  unpractised  eyes,  the  visible  universe  resem- 
bles, to  some  extent,  at  least,  the  human  microcosm. 
Thus,  the  stars  are  the  eyes  of  heaven,  or  the  "god 
Uranus,  and  while  darkness  shrouds  the  earth,  they 
act  the  part  of  sentries  in  the  celestial  dome,  and 

scries  of  causes  observable  in  the  universe,  and  which  are  com- 
monly called  the  course  of  nature.  Hence,  fetich,  fate,  and 
fairy  =  an  enchantress,  are  correlative  terms.*  When  the  gods 
are  represented  in  pagan  mythology  as  subject  to  fate,  the  fact  is 
to  be  regarded  as  a  great  and  beautiful  truth,  as  will  appear  more 
fully  hereafter ;  for  being  virtually  intended  as  the  mere  symbols 
of  the  manifestations  of  the  divine  attributes  and  character,  as  dis- 
played in  the  visible  world,  they  are  of  course  subject  to  those  laws 
which  God  has  seen  fit  to  impose  both  upon  himself  and  upon 
every  part  of  the  vast  universe. 

*The  Latin  fabula  or  fable,  is  also  a  branch  of  this  family  of  words. 


10  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

keenly  survey  the  actions  of  mankind.  Lamps,  too, 
have  been  recognized  in  them,  which,  it  is  presumed, 
are  lighted  up  in  the  evening,  and  extinguished  at 
the  approach  of  day.  The  moon  has  apparently  a 
human  physiognomy;  is  a  female  deity,  and  named 
Luna.  She  is  believed  to  be  in  a  pleasant  humor  as 
long  as  she  presents  her  lustrous  face  towards  the 
earth,  but  when  she  veils  it  under  an  eclipse,  she  is 
angry  at  her  votaries,  and  they  have  reason  to  dread 
her  wrath  while  she  is  unpropitiated. 

Columbus  and  his  crew  being  no  longer  supplied 
with  food  by  the  natives  as  heretofore,  and  threat- 
ened with  starvation,  the  wily  discoverer  of  a  new 
world  concerted  his  measures  in  accordance  with 
this  infantine  faith,  and,  announcing  to  the  simple 
aborigines  of  Santa  Gloria  the  approaching  eclipse 
of  the  moon,  represented  this  phenomenon  as  the 
symbol  of  the  severe  indignation  which  the  God  of 
the  Spaniards  felt  against  them,  on  account  of  their 
refusal  to  furnish  the  invaders  of  their  country,  and 
the  despoilers  of  their  liberty,  with  the  necessaries 
of  life.  The  artifice  had  its  desired  effect,  and  so 
great  was  the  consternation  of  the  poor  Indians 
when  the  predicted  lunar  obscuration  took  place, 
that  they  brought  provisions  in  the  greatest  abun- 
dance, from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  the  treacher- 
ous strangers,  of  whose  celestial  origin  they  had  but 
recently  had  some  well  founded  doubts,  praying  only 
that  their  dutiful  behavior  might  merit  the  forgive- 
ness of  the  offended  Divinity. 

Beside  these  instances  in  point,  I  may  further  re- 
mark, in  illustration  of  this  topic,  that  the  wind 
moans  or  howls ;  the  stream  leaps  or  runs ;  the  tree 


IX  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         11 

nods  or  beckons ;  the  rains  arc  tears,  which  heaven, 
in  sorrow  or  in  anger,  sheds  upon  the  earth;  and  the 
fantastic  cloud-forms  arc  so  many  ghostly  warriors, 
ominously  hovering  over  the  human  domicil.  Be- 
sides, the  fire  bites  :  its  flames  are  tongues,  which — ■ 
like  the  serpent-locks  of  Medusa  —  encircle  and  de- 
vour their  victim.  Hail  is  the  algid  missile  of  some 
shaggy  or  sullen  frost-king,  the  Joetun  Rime,  for 
example,  in  Scandinavian  mythology.  The  earth  is 
a  mother,  producing  and  nourishing  an  innumerable 
progeny,  and  hence  called  Ceres,  or  Alrna  Nostra. 
Here  we  find  not  only  impersonation,  but  also 
apotheosis ;  and  the  reason  is,  that  man,  more  sen- 
tient than  rational,  is  restricted  in  the  unfolding  pro- 
cess of  his  inner  life,  to  the  intercourse  with  the 
objects  of  sense,  unable  as  yet  to  rise  to  abstract 
ideas.  "  You  remember,"  writes  the  author  On 
Heroes,  Hero -Worship  and  the  Heroic  in  History ', 
"  that  fancy  of  Aristotle's,  of  a  man  who  had  grown 
to  maturity  in  some  dark  distance,  and  was  brought, 
on  a  sudden,  into  the  upper  air  to  see  the  sun  rise. 
What  would  his  wonder  be,"  says  the  philosopher, 
"  his  rapt  astonishment  at  the  sight  we  daily  witness 
with  indifference !  With  the  free,  open  sense  of  a 
child,  yet  with  the  ripe  faculty  of  a  man,  his  whole 
heart  would  be  kindled  by  that  sight,  he  would  dis- 
cern it  well  to  be  godlike,  his  soul  would  fall  down 
in  worship  before  it.  Now,  just  such  a  childlike 
greatness  was  in  the  primitive  nations.  The  first 
Pagan  Thinker  among  rude  men,  the  first  man  that 
began  to  think,  was  precisely  the  child-man  of  Aris- 
totle.    Simple,  open  as  a  child,  yet  with  the  depth 


12  THE    HEATHEN    RELIGION 

and  strength  of  a  man.  Nature  Bad,  as  yet,  no 
name  to  him ;  he  had  not  yet  united  under  a  name 
the  infinite  variety  of  sights,  sounds,  shapes,  and 
motions,  which  we  now  collectively  name  universe, 
nature,  or  the  like,  and  so  with  a  name  dismiss  it 
from  us.  To  the  wild,  deep-hearted  man,  all  was  yet 
new,  unveiled  under  names  or  formulas ;  it  stood 
naked,  flashing  in  on  him  there,  beautiful,  awful,  un- 
speakable. Nature  wras  to  this  man,  what  to  the 
Thinker  and  Prophet  it  forever  is,  preternatural. 
This  green,  flowery,  rock-built  earth,  the  trees,  the 
mountains,  rivers,  many-sounding  seas ;  that  great 
deep  sea  of  azure  that  swims  overhead ;  the  winds 
sweeping  through  it;  the  black  cloud  fashioning 
itself  together,  now  pouring  out  fire,  now  hail  and 
rain  :  what  is  it  ?  Aye,  what  ?  At  bottom  we  do  not 
yet  know ;  we  can  never  know  at  all.  It  is  not  by 
our  superior  insight,  that  we  escape  the  difficulty ;  it 
is  by  our  superior  levity,  our  inattention,  our  want 
of  insight.  It  is  by  not  thinking  that  we  cease  to 
wonder  at  it.  Hardened  round  us,  incasing  wholly 
every  notion  we  form,  is  a  wrappage  of  traditions, 
hearsays,  mere  ivords.  We  call  that  fire  of  the  black 
thunder-cloud  'electricity,'  and  lecture  learnedly  about 
it,  and  grind  the  like  of  it  out  of  glass  and  silk : 
but  ivhat  is  it  ?  What  made  it  ?  Whence  comes 
it  ?  Whither  goes  it  ?  Science  has  done  much  for 
us ;  but  it  is  a  poor  science  that  Avould  hide  from  us 
the  great,  deep,  sacred  infinitude  of  Nescience, 
whither  we  can  never  penetrate,  on  which  all  sci- 
ence swims  as  a  mere  superficial  film.  This  world, 
after  all  our  science  and  sciences,  is  still  a  miracle ; 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         13 

wonderful,  inscrutable,  magical,  and  more  to  whom- 
soever will  think  of  it." 

In  the  animal  kingdom,  especially,  primeval  man 
presumes  he  sees  creatures  endowed  with  thought 
and  reflection  similar  to  himself,  and  now  and  then 
imagines  he  discovers  among  them  traces  of  a  wis- 
dom more  than  human.  An  instance  of  this  kind, 
mythology  records  under  the  name  of  the  bird  of 
Minerva,  or  the  owl,  which  it  may  be  supposed, 
attained  to  this  ornithological  preeminence,  on  ac- 
count of  the  superior  gravity  of  its  demeanor,  and 
the  deep  and  ominous  tones  in  which  it  prognosti- 
cates the  approaching  meteorological  changes  in  the 
atmosphere.  The  Indian  apologizes  to  the  bear,  the 
heart  of  which  he  has  pierced  with  the  fatal  arrow, 
on  account  of  the  deplorable  necessity  which  com- 
pelled him  to  commit  so  cruel  a  deed,  and  expresses 
the  fond  hope  that  his  sable  victim  will  not  cherish 
any  ill-feelings  towards  his  unfortunate  slayer.  The 
sonorous  and  often  mournful  lowing  of  the  bull,  is 
deemed  significant  of  a  divine  presence,  and  the  un- 
suspecting brute  is  suddenly  promoted  to  the  dignity 
of  a  fetich  or  an  idol,  while  his  name  is  piously 
enrolled  in  the  list  of  the  gods.  The  serpent,  "  more 
subtle,"  according  to  Moses,  the  Hebrew  lawgiver, 
"  than  any  beast  of  the  field,"  has  had  a  place  from 
time  immemorial  in  the  motley  pantheon  of  heathen- 
ism, and  has  been  worshipped  either  for  its  benig- 
nant or  its  obnoxious  qualities.  The  polished 
Greeks  paid  their  homage  to  iEsculapius,  under 
the  form  of  a  serpent,  and  the  sacred  snake  of  the 
negroes  of  Whida,  owes  its  deification  to  the  cir- 
cumstance that  it  appeared  to  them  at  the  favorable 

2 


14  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

moment  when  they  had  gained  a  decisive  victory 
over  the  people  of  Ardra.* 


*  Captain  "Walter  M.  Gibson,  the  account  of  whose  sufferings 
and  romantic   adventures  among  the  Dutch  and  Malays,  is  still 
fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  public,  in  an  intensely  interesting 
discourse  before  the  American  Geographical  and  Statistical  Soci- 
ety, in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  preced- 
ing yedr,  among  other  interesting  statements,  gave  the  following 
account  of  a  most  singular  race  of  people  residing  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  Sumatra,  and  known  as  the  Orang  Kooboos,  or 
Brown  Men  of  Sumatra.     Osmin,  an  independent  prince  of  the 
island,  "  called  them,"  says  the  Captain,  "  tai  orang,  the  ordure  of 
men."     He  said  that  they  were  born  as  the  lowest  of  slaves,  and 
this  had  been  the  case  for  hundreds  of  generations,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  the  descendants  of  slaves  and  burden-carriers  of  the 
army  of  Alexander.     I  found  them  generally  called  "  hamba  or 
hoodak  Iskandar"  —  the  slaves  of  Alexander.     It  is  well  known 
that  numberless   traditions  of  Alexander  the    Great,   of   "Dou'l 
Karnain,"  —  "the  two-horned,"  prevail  throughout  Sumatra,  as 
well  as  in  the  Asiatic  Continent,  etc.     He  adds:  "I  was  informed 
by  a  fellow-prisoner  at  AVeltevreden,  by  one  Captain  Van  Woor- 
den,  who  had  been  four  years  commanding  at  the  small  post  of 
Lahat,  in  the  interior  of  Sumatra,  and  who  had  had  frequent  op- 
portunities to  observe  the  Orang  £ooboos,  botli  male  and  female, 
sit  round  a  buluh  batang,  or  species  of  bamboo,  that  attains  to  a 
great  size,  and  would  all  in  concert,  as  many  as  could,  strike  their 
heads  repeatedly  against  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  and  utter  some 
rude,  grunting  ejaeulations ;  this   he  observed  took  place  when- 
ever any  one,  or  all  of  the  band  got  hurt,  or  received  any  special 
gratification,  but  mostly  when  injured.      Now,  it  is  well  known 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  semi-civilized,  semi-pagan  Sumatrans, 
believe  that  in  the  enormous  tufts  of  the  buluh  batang,  as  well  as 
in  the  marringin  tree,  there  exist  widadiri  dowas  and  rakshashas, 
or  good  and   evil   supernatural  beings;    and,    what  is   remarka- 
ble,  that  throughout   Sumatra,   all   the   beings   of  their   pagan 
mythology  are  of  the  feminine  gender.     I  have  heard  described 
by  their'  orang  menyanyec,  or  pantun verse-singers,  some  most 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         15 

ravishing  pictures  of  the  widadiri,  or  good  wood-nymphs  of  the 
buluh  batang."  *  "  The  Chingalas  of  Ceylon,"  writes  the  author 
of  A  Comparison  of  the  Institutions  of  Moses  with  those  of  the 
Hindoos,  etc.,  "  worship  a  tree  called  Bogaha,  in  the  form  of 
which  they  believe  that  Budda  was  manifested.  —  Ezourvedam, 
vol.  li.  p.  47.  Under  this  tree,  they  light  lamps  and  place  images. 
—  DelaporCs  Voyages,  vol.  iii.  p.  395." 

*  New  York  Universe. 


SECTION    II. 

THE    TOPOGEAPHY    OF    BELIGIOUS    OBJECTS,    REGARDED 

AS   DEIFIED,   AND    THE   WORSHIP   WHICH 

IS   BESTOWED   UPON  THEM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    TOPOGRAPHY    OF    RELIGIOUS    OBJECTS,    REGARDED 

AS    DEIFIED. 

Wherever  the  universe  displays  its  prolific  empire, 
there  may  be  found  the  religion  and  the  gods  of  the 
heathen.  Upon,  above,  or  beneath  the  earth ;  in 
the  aerial  and  empyreal  heavens ;  on  the  snow-capt 
mountain,  and  in  the  fathomless  abyss ;  in  the  ver- 
dant glen,  the  shady  grove,  or  the  crystal  fountain : 
all  nature  teems  with  divinities  —  the  symbols  of 
God  made  manifest  in  his  works,  and  earth,  heaven, 
and  hades,  are  filled  with  the  diversified  and  multi- 
tudinous objects  of  religious  worship.  On  this  in- 
teresting topic,  Kaiser  makes  the  following  judicious 
remarks.  Speaking  of  primeval  man,  whose- vivid 
imagination  reigns  supreme  among  the  faculties  of 
his  soul,  he  adds :  "  To  conceive  the  surrounding 
objects  of  the  world  under  the  idea  of  a  totality,  he 

(16)    i 


THE    HEATHEN   RELIGION,    ETC.  17 

is  incapable.     Like  a  child  he  stares  at  the  novel 
and  strange  sights  which   he   beholds,  and   startles' 
with  surprise  at  the  various  sounds,  which  greet  his 
ears    in    mystic    strains.      His    mind   is    powerfully 
affected  by  the  different  phases  which  the  earth  as- 
sumes at  each  successive  revolution  of  the  seasons, 
and  he  contemplates  with  a  mingled  feeling  of  fear 
and  wonder,  the  alternate  vicissitudes  of  growth  and 
decay,  of   life    and    death,  to  which    her  cherished 
offspring  are  doomed.     Especially  is  his  slumbering 
attention  aroused  by  whatever  is  distinguished  for 
its  lustre,  its  velocity,  its  huge  size,   or  prodigious 
strength.     Hence  the  first  piece  of  wood,  a  stone, 
an  animal,  a  star,  which  impresses  his  imagination 
with  the  idea  of  the  preternatural,  and  seems  either 
to  promise  protection  or  to  demand  obedience,  his 
excited  and   overwhelmed   feelings    prompt  him  to 
elevate  to  the  rank  of  a  god,  or  to  recognize  in  it  at 
least  a  fetich,  animated  by  a  spirit  or  demon,  and 
proclaiming  oracles  to  mankind." 

The  gods,  it  may  be  observed  here,  are  of  different 
sexes,  and  stand  related  to  each  other  according  to 
the  usual  tables  of  consanguinity  common  among 
mortals.     They,  of  course,  "  marry,  and  are  given  in 
marriage."     Some  of  the  celestial  families,  as  may 
readily  be  supposed,  are  more  powerful  and  influen- 
tial than  others,  precisely  as  is  the  case  among  men; 
for  the  gods  are  divided  agreeably  to  their  rank  and 
dominion,  into  superior  and  inferior  orders,  and  rise 
gradually  in  power  and  dignity  from  the  diminutive 
Penates  of  the  domestic  hearth,  or  the  black  stone 
of  the  Arabs,  to  the  lofty  and  severe  majesty  of  the 
Olympian  Jupiter.      Not    only  every   division,  but 

2* 


18  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

often,  even,  every  individual  object  in  the  visible 
creation,  has  had  its  presiding  genius  or  reigning 
god;  and  therefore  the  religion  of  the  heathen,  in  its 
more  primitive  form,  is  rather  pantheistic  than  poly- 
theistic. In  his  mythological  researches,  as  it  ap- 
pears from  his  "  Northern  Antiquities,"  M.  Mallet 
arrived  at  results  which  are  strikingly  cognate  to  the 
facts  here  laid  down.  "  Each  element,"  he  writes, 
"  was,  according  to  the  faith  of  primeval  man,  under 
the  guidance  of  some  being  peculiar  to  it.  The 
earth,  the  water,  the  fire,  the  air,  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  had  each  their  respective  divinity.  The  trees, 
forests,  rivers,  mountains,  rocks,  winds,  thunder,  and 
tempests,  had  the  same ;  and  merited,  on  that  score, 
a  religious  "worship,  which,  at  first,  could  not  be 
directed  to  the  visible  object,  but  to  the  intelligence 
with  which  it  was  animated." 

The  ancients,  and  especially  the  Athenians,  paid 
particular  attention  to  the  winds,  and  offered  them 
sacrifices,  as  to  deities,  under  the  name  of  Venii. 
The  four  principal  winds  were,  the  south-east,  or 
Eurus,  represented  as  a  young  man  flying  with  great 
impetuosity,  and  often  appearing  in  a  playsome  and 
wanton  humor ;  the  south  wind,  or  Auster,  that  ap- 
peared as  an  old  man  with  gray  hair,  a  gloomy  coun- 
tenance, a  head  covered  with  clouds,  a  sable  vesture, 
and  dusky  wings :  he  is  the  dispenser  of  rain,  and 
of  all  heavy  showers ;  the  west  wind,  or  Zephyrus, 
that  is  described  as  the  mildest  of  all  the  windy  dei- 
ties. He  is  young  and  gentle,  and  his  lap  is  filled 
with  vernal  flowers.  He  married  the  goddess  Flora, 
with  whom  he  is  said  to  have  enjoyed  the  most  per- 
fect felicity.     As  to  the  north  wind,  or  Boreas,  fame 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         19 

has  stigmatized  this  divinity  with  the  reproach  to  be 
invariably  rough  and  chilly.  He  is  the  father  of 
snow,  hail,  and  tempests,  and  is  always  represented 
surrounded  by  impenetrable  clouds.  The  other  gods, 
Solanus,  Africus,  Corus,  and  Aquilo,  who  also  be- 
longed to  this  category,  were  of  inferior  note,  except 
iEolus,  who  was  emphatically  the  storm-king-,  what- 
ever claim  others  might  advance  to  this  distinction. 

Perhaps  it  will  puzzle  the  curious  reader  to  under- 
stand how  nearly  every  constituent  part  of  the  uni- 
verse could  be  separately  or  collectively  deified,  and 
yet  at  the  same  time,  be  under  a  foreign  or  superior 
deific  influence.  The  solution  of  the  problem  is  not 
difficult.  The  human  mind  in  its  ascending  strug- 
gles, gradually  perceived  the  impropriety  of  ascrib- 
ing to  an  almost  unlimited  extent,  the  attributes  and 
functions  peculiar  only  to  gods  properly  so  called,  to 
the  various  objects  and  powers  of  nature;  and  it 
therefore  wisely  contented  itself  by  assigning  to 
many  of  them  a  secondary  rank,  or  a  mere  passive 
agency,  and  placing  them  under  the  tutelar  care  and 
supervision  of  the  superior  powers.  In  this  way 
only  could  they  satisfactorily  explain  to  themselves 
many  of  the  wonderful  and  mysterious  phenomena 
and  influences,  which  everywhere  struck  their  atten- 
tion with  awe  or  astonishment,  alarmed  their  fears, 
or  filled  their  souls  with  hope  and  joy,  and  essen- 
tially affected  their  weal  or  woe.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  continuing  to  confer  divinity  on  the  isolated  tree, 
as  had  formerly  been  the  practice,  the  collective  for- 
est had  a  god  impost  upon  it  under  the  compre- 
hensive appellation  of  Pan :  a  bearded,  horned,  and 
cloven-footed  divinity,  in  the  similitude  of  the  goat, 


20  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

and  constituting  the  embryo  of  the  future  Jupiter 
and  Pater-Deus  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  and 
the  ocean,  instead  of  being  any  longer  parcelled  out 
among  a  multitude  of  supreme  local  regents,  was 
intrusted  to  the  powerful  trident  of  Neptune,  who 
was,  however,  chiefly  recognized  and  adored  by 
merchants  and  mariners,  whose  lives  and  fortunes 
were  mainly  confided  to  his  vigilant  care.  If  ever  he 
did  enjoy  the  enviable  prerogative  of  absolute  god- 
head, the  Egyptian  apis  ceased  at  last  to  be  a  deity 
in  his  own  right,  and  became  the  mere  vehicle  and 
repository  of  divinity.  Ultimately  he  figured  no 
longer  even  in  this  perhaps  humiliating  capacity, 
and  yet  his  mythological  worth  and  significance 
rather  increased  than  diminished;  for  he  was  now 
the  symbol  of  important  physical  facts  as  well  as 
profound  truths  in  natural  theology.  How  su- 
premely absurd  is  the  idea  advanced  by  some 
modern  writers,  whose  bigotry  and  prejudices  exer- 
cise a  far  more  powerful  sway  over  their  minds  than 
the  love  of  truth  and  the  interests  of  science,  that 
the  people  of  the  Nile,  in  a  high  state  of  civilization, 
especially  the  priests  and  sages,  renowned  for  their 
varied  and  profound  wisdom,  should  have  perpetrated 
the  unparalleled  stupidity  of  making  a  god  of  a 
creature  inferior  to  the  least  of  his  worshippers ! 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         21 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    WORSHIP    OF    THE    GODS. 

In  the  worship  of  the  gods,  during  the  primitive 
ages,  mankind  sought  to  present  to  them  such 
gifts  —  in  conjunction  with  their  prayers,  as  were 
calculated  to  gratify  the  senses,  and  to  create  those 
pleasing  emotions  in  the  soul  which  they  themselves 
derived  from  their  enjoyment.  Besides,  the  gods 
were  at  one  time,  and  by  the  ignorant  in  every  age, 
really  supposed  to  need  food  and  drink,  at  least  to 
some  extent,  as  well  as  their  votaries.  Moreover,  if 
it  was  not  good  etiquette  to  appear  before  a  person 
of  high  rank,  especially  in  Oriental  countries,  with- 
out a  suitable  present,  how  could  a  worshipper  of 
the  immortal  gods  dare  to  enter  into  their  august 
presence  without  some  costly  gifts  as  the  testimo- 
nials of  their  good-will  and  unshaken  devotion  ?  No 
doubt  self-interest  no  less  than  motives  of  sincere 
attachment,  occasionally  suggested  the  propriety  ol 
tendering  an  offering  to  the  superior  powers,  in 
which  case  it  was  synonymous  with  a  bribe,  offered 
under  the  semblance  of  religious  zeal.  Nomades 
have  always  prized  the  firstlings  of  their  flocks  as  the 
most  desirable  gifts  for  the  gods,  while  hunters  and 
fishermen  offer  to  them  some  of  the  choicest  speci- 
mens of  the  chase,  or  of  the  finny  spoils  of  the 
stream,  and  the  husbandman  lays  upon  their  altars 
various  samples  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  or  tenders 
to  them  the  savory  morsels  of  a  fatted  beast.     In- 


22  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

cense,  too,  as  a  grateful  perfume  to  the  olfactories  of 
the  immortal  powers,  was  burned  in  honor  of  them ; 
and  it  is  stated  that  at  a  single  festival  of  the  god 
Belus,  in  Babylon,  one  thousand  pounds  of  the  de- 
lightful drug  were  consumed  in  the  luxurious  service 
of  that  deity.  Libations,  likewise,  formed  a  part  of 
the  sacrificial  ritual,  and  no  true  worshipper  pre- 
sumed to  touch  the  cup  with  his  lips  before  the  pre- 
siding divinity  had  had  his  share.  In  the  earliest 
ages,  the  gods,  it  may  be  supposed,  got  treated  only 
to  water,  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  shepherd 
could  give  them  a  draught  of  milk,  and  while  the 
Greek  and  Roman  deities  enjoyed  their  nectar  or 
their  wine,  Odin,  the  Scandinavian,  sipped  his  beer 
in  Valhalla.  If  we  can  rely  upon  a  Grecian  myth, 
the  most  ancient   offerings  were   derived   from  the 

o 

vegetable  kingdom.  Lycaon,  the  savage  son  of  Pe- 
lasgus,  and  first  king  of  Arcadia,  polluted  the  altar 
of  Zeus  with  the  blood  of  a  child ;  but  Cecrops,  the 
Egyptian,  directed  cakes  alone  to  be  offered  to  this 
god  at  Athens.  The  greatest  diversity,  both  in  the 
style  and  the  expense  of  the  sacrificial  service,  has 
distinguished  the  devotion  or  the  resources  of  the 
heathen.  While  at  one  time  some  fruit,  a  cake,  a 
small  piece  of  aromatic  gum,  or  a  fragrant  herb,  was 
deemed  sufficiently  demonstrative  of  a  pious  zeal,  at 
another,  a  hecatomb  was  considered  necessary  to 
illustrate  the  importance  of  the  occasion,  to  satisfy 
the  claim  of  the  god,  or  to  express  the  rank  and  wealth 
of  the  offerers.  Even  so  sumptuous  and  honorable 
an  offering  was  now  and  then  despised  as  inadequate 
to  do  justice  to  the  gods,  or  as  too  mean  fully  to  dis- 
play the  extraordinary  piety  of  man,  and  a  hundred 


- 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         23 

lions,  a  hundred  eagles,  etc.,  were  required  to  satisfy 
the  lofty  devotion  of  an  emperor  —  sacrificium  im- 
peratorium.  There  were  also  votive  offerings  and 
consecrated  gifts  —  anathcmata,  which  were  hung  or 
laid  up  in  the  temples  of  the  gods. 

The  Persian  mode  of  paying  homage  to  their  dei- 
ties, confirmed  by  undeviating  custom,  "  Is,"  writes 
Herodotus,  according  to  the  version  of  Beloe,  "  to 
sacrifice  to  them  without  altars  or  fire,  libations,  or 
instrumental  music,  garlands,  or  consecrated  cakes; 
but  every  individual,  as  he  wishes  to  sacrifice  to  any 
particular  divinity,  conducts  his  victim  to  a  place 
made  clean  for  the  purpose,  and  makes  his  invoca- 
tion or  his  prayers  with  a  tiara  enriched  generally 
with  myrtle.  The  supplicant  is  not  permitted  to 
implore  blessings  on  himself  alone  ;  his  whole  nation, 
and  particularly  his  sovereign,  have  a  claim  to  his 
prayers,  himself  being  necessarily  comprehended 
with  the  rest.  He  proceeds  to  divide  his  victim  into 
several  minute  parts,  which,  when  boiled,  he  places 
on  the  most  delicate  verdure  he  can  find,  giving  the 
preference  to  trefoil.  When  things  are  thus  pre- 
pared, one  of  the  magi,  without  whose  presence  no 
sacrifice  is  deemed  lawful,  stands  up  and  chants  the 
primeval  origin  of  the  gods,  which  they  suppose  to 
have  a  sacred  and  mysterious  influence.  The  wor- 
shipper, after  this,  takes  with  him,  for  his  own  use, 
such  parts  of  the  flesh  as  he  thinks  proper." 

The  animal  kingdom  has  always  supplied  large  con- 
tributions to  the  banquets  of  the  gods.     The  victim,* 

* "  The  beast  to  be  sacrificed,"  says  Kennett,  in  his  Roman 
Antiquities,  "  if  it  was  of  the  larger  sort,  used  to  be  marked  on 


24  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

which  is  often  appropriately  decorated  for  the  sol- 
emn occasion,  must  be  selected  with  scrupulous 
care  ;  for  it  is  required  to  be  free  of  all  blemishes 
and  diseases.  Every  thing  being  prepared,  according 
to  the  Roman  ritual,  for  example,  it  is  led  to  the 
place  of  sacrifice,  preceded  by  the  officiating  priest, 
clothed  in  a  white  robe  free  from  spots  and  figures  : 
white  was  a  color  in  which  the  gods  took  especial 
delight.  A  libation  of  wine  is  then  poured  upon  the 
altar,  and  a  solemn  invocation  addressed  to  the  deity. 
After  this,  the  victim  is  usually  slain,  though  some- 
times, it  undergoes  a  previous  consecration,  techni- 
cally called  immolatio,  which  consists,  writes  Ken- 
nett,  "  In  the  throwing  of  some  sort  of  corn  and 
frankincense,  together  with  the  mola,  that  is,  bran  or 
meal  mixed  with  salt,  upon  the  head  of  the  beast. 
In  the  next  place,  the  priest  sprinkled  wine  between 
the  horns  ;  a  custom  very  often  taken  notice  of  by 
the  poets,"  etc. 

Prom  the  following  passage  in  Pope's  Iliad  of 
Homer,  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  sacrificial 
rites,  as  they  were  observed  by  the  Greeks  in  the 
my tho- Trojan  era  :  — 

"  In  Chrysa's  port  now  sage  Ulysses  rode  ; 
Beneath  the  deck  the  destin'd  victims  stow'd  : 
The  sails  they  farL'd,  they  lash  the  mast  aside, 
And  dropt  their  anchors,  and  the  pinnace  tied. 


the  horns  with  gold;  if  of  the  lesser  sort,  it  was  crowned  with 
the  leaves  of  that  tree,  which  the  deity  was  thought  most  to  de- 
light in  for  whom  the  sacrifice  was  designed.  And  besides  these, 
they  wore  the  infulaj  and  vittae,  a  sort  of  white  fillets,  about  their 
heads." 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         25 

Next  on  the  shore  their  hecatomb  they  land ; 
Chryseis  last  descending  on  the  strand. 
Her,  thus  returning  from  the  t'urrow'd  main, 
Ulysses  led  to  Phoebus'  sacred  fane : 
Where  at  his  solemn  altar,  as  the  maid     - 
He  gave  to  Chryses,  thus,  the  hero  said : 
'  Hail,  reverend  priest !  to  Phoebus'  awful  dome 
A  suppliant  I  from  great  Atrides  come : 
Unransom'd  here  receive  the  spotless  fair; 
Accept  the  hecatomb  the  Greeks  prepare  ; 
And  may  thy  god  who  scatters  darts  around, 
Aton'd  by  sacrifice,  desist  to  wound.' 
At  this,  the  sire  embrac'd  the  maid  again, 
So  sadly  lost,  so  lately  sought  in  vain. 
Then  near  the  altar  of  the  darting  king, 

©  ©' 

Dispos'd  in  rank  their  hecatomb  they  bring  ; 
With  water  purify  their  hands,  and  take 
The  sacred  offering  of  the  salted  cake ; 
While  thus  with  arms  devoutlv  rais'd  in  air, 
And  solemn  voice,  the  priest  directs  his  prayer.: 
'  God  of  the  silver  bow,  thy  ear  incline, 
Whose  power  encircles  Cilia  the  divine ; 
"Whose  sacred  eye  thy  Tenedos  surveys, 
And  gilds  fair  Chrysa  with  distinguished  rays ! 
If,  fir'd  to  vengeance  at  thy  priest's  request, 
Thy  direful  darts  inflict  the  raging  pest ; 
Once  more  attend  !  avert  the  wasteful  woe, 
And  smile  propitious,  and  unbend  thy  bow.' 
So  Chryses  prayed.     Apollo  heard  his  prayer : 
And  now  the  Greeks  their  hecatomb  prepare ; 
Between  their  horns  the  salted  barley  threw, 
And,  with  their  heads  to  Heaven,  the  victims  slew : 
The  limbs  they  sever  from  the  enclosing  hide  ; 
The  thighs,  selected  to  the  gods,  divide : 
On  these,  in  double  cauls  involv'd  with  art, 
The  choicest  morsels  lay  from  every  part. 
The  priest  himself  before  his  altar  stands, 
And  burns  the  offering  with  his  holy  hands, 
Pours  the  black  wine,  and  sees  the  flames  aspire ; 

3 


26  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

The  youths  with  instruments  surround  the  fire  : 
The  thighs,  thus  sacrificed,  and  entrails  dress'd, 
Th'  assistants  part,  transfix,  and  roast  the  rest : 
Then  spread  the  tables,  the  repast  prepare, 
Each  takes  his  seat,  and  each  receives  his  share. 
When  now  the  rage  of  hunger  was  repress'd, 
"With  pure  libations  they  conclude  the  feast ; 
The  youths  with  wine  the  copious  goblets  crown'd, 
And,  pleas'd,  dispense  the  flowing  bowls  around ; 
"With  hymns  divine  the  joyous  banquet  ends, 
The  pecans  lengthen'd  till  the  sun  descends : 
The  Greeks,  restor'd,  the  grateful  notes  prolong ; 
Apollo  listens,  and  approves  the  song." 

The  Father  of  History  affirms  that  in  Egypt  it 
was  deemed  a  capital  offence,  to  sacrifice  a  beast, 
which  did  not  bear  the  impression  of  the  seal  of  the 
superintending  priest,  because  this  mark  was  the 
legal  attestation  of  its  fitness  for  the  sacrifice.  It  is 
likewise  to  be  observed,  that  though  every  deity  had 
some  rites  and  institutions,  which  were  peculiar  to 
him ;  yet  some  of  the  ritual  laws  were  of  a  general 
character,  and  might  with  little  or  no  modifications 
be  employed  indiscriminately  in  the  sacred  service. 
The  offerings  were  of  different  kinds,  according  to 
the  ends  which  were  designed  to  be  accomplished  by 
them,  or  the  predominant  feelings  which  animated 
the  soul  of  the  worshipper.  Thus  there  were  thank- 
offerings,  and  offerings  of  rejoicing,  meat  and  fruit- 
offerings,  peace-offerings,  sin  and  burnt-offerings,  etc. 
Burnt-offerings  were  entirely  consumed  upon  the 
altar,  and  therefore  the  Greeks  denominated  them 
holocausta.  It  may  not  be  uninstructive,  and  it  will 
certainly  not  be  uninteresting,  to  hear  again  in  this 
place  the  author  just  quoted,  in  his  account  of  a 


IX  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         27 

sacrifice  to  Isis,  the  greatest  of  the  Egyptian  god- 
desses, which  seems  to  premise  no  mean  skill  in  the 
culinary  art,  nor  an  ordinary  taste  for  symposia! 
cheer,  among  the  ancient  builders  of  the  pyramids. 
"  After  the  previous  ceremony  of  prayers,"  thus 
writes  the  indefatigable  historian,  "  they  sacrifice  an 
ox :  they  then  strip  off  the  skin,  and  take  out  the  in- 
testines, leaving  the  fat  and  the  paunch ;  they  after- 
wards cut  off  the  legs,  the  shoulders,  the  neck,  and 
the  extremities  of  the  loin ;  the  rest  of  the  body  is 
stuffed  with  fine  bread,  honey,  raisins,  fig's,  frankin- 
cense, myrrh,  and  various  aromatics ;  after  this  pro- 
cess they  burn  it,  pouring  on  the  flame  a  large 
quantity  of  oil:  while  the  victim  is  burning,  the 
spectators  flagellate  themselves,  having  fasted  be- 
fore the  ceremony ;  the  whole  is  completed  by  their 
feasting  on  the  residue  of  the  sacrifice."  *  The  blood, 
too,  of  human  victims  —  an  instance  of  which  we 
noticed  above  —  occasionally  stained  the  altars,  and 
illustrated  the  virtues  or  appeased  the  wrath  of  the 
gods,  and  the  Egyptians  preferred,  for  this  purpose, 
those  whose  misfortune  it  was  to  have  red  hair :  the 
symbol,  according  to  their  creed,  of  Typhonian  attri- 
butes. The  rank,  the  sex,  or  the  character  of  the 
deity,  gave  a  peculiar  coloring  to  his  worship.  Thus, 
goats,  sheep,  and  white  bulls,  -were  the  dainty  viands 
in  which  Jupiter  especially  delighted ;  Juno  was 
partial  to  the  hawk,  the  goose,  and  particularly  to 
the  peacock,  hence  often  distinguished  as  the  Junonia 
avis,  while  the  dittany,  the  poppy,  and  the  lily,  were 
her  favorite    flowers.      To   Apollo,  the    god  of   the 

*  Beloe. 


29  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

silver-bow,  the  cock,  the  grasshopper,  the  wolf,  the 
crow,  the  swan,  the  lamb,  the  olive,  the  laurel,  the 
palm-tree,  etc.,  were  sacred.  Venus  modestly  con- 
tented herself  with  the  rose  —  the  queen  of  flowers, 
the  myrtle,  and  the  apple,  and  while  the  dove  and 
the  sparrow  graced  her  sacrificial  rites,  the  fishes 
called  aphya  and  lycostomus,  served  to  give  zest  to 
her  enjoyments,  and  variety  to  her  feasts.  The 
white  poplar  honored  the  puissant  name  of  Her- 
cules ;  and  as  to  the  jolly  god  Bacchus,  the  leaves  of 
the  vine  and  the  ivy  encircled  his  dizzy  brow,  while 
the  magpie  and  the  panther  illustrated  the  terms  of 
his  divinity.  According  to  Sonnetat's  Voyages, 
Vichnou  is  the  only  Hindoo  god  to  whom  bloody 
sacrifices,  consisting  of  cocks  and  kids,  are  offered. 
The  Massageta,  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  whose 
territories,  according  to  Herodotus,  extended  beyond 
the  river  Araxes  to  the  extreme  parts  of  the  East, 
and  who  were  esteemed  by  some  to  be  a  Scythian 
nation,  sacrificed  horses  to  the  sun,  their  only  deity, 
thinking  it  right  to  offer  the  swiftest  of  mortal  ani- 
mals to  the  swiftest  of  immortal  beings.  Larcher, 
in  reference  to  this  equine  sacrifice,  in  a  note  on 
this  passage,  thus  adds :  "  This  was  a  very  ancient 
custom  ;  it  was  practised  in  Persia,  in  the  time  of 
Cyrus,  and  was  probably  anterior  to  that  prince. 
Horses  were  sacrificed  to  Neptune  and  the  deities 
of  the  rivers,  being  precipitated  into  the  sea  or  into 
the  rivers.  Sextus  Pompeius  threw  into  the  sea 
horses  and  live  oxen,  in  honor  of  Neptune,  whose 
son  he  professed  to  be."  To  Saturn,  the  god  of  time, 
human  victims  were  offered  as  the  noblest  produc- 
tions in  sublunary  time,  or  as  some  have  errone- 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         29 

ously  taught,  because  he  delighted  in  human  blood. 
While  the  ancient  Mexicans,  who  were  fierce  and 
warlike  to  a  high  degree,  deemed  human  sacrifices  to 
be  the  most  acceptable  gifts  to  the  gods,  their  mild 
and  humane  neighbors  of  the  South,  the  Peru- 
vians, never  stained  their  altars  with  the  blood  of 
man,  but  offered  to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  espec- 
ially to  the  god  of  day  as  their  chief  divinity,  and 
the  resplendent  sire  of  the  Inca  race,  "  A  part  of 
those  productions,"  writes  Doctor  Robertson,  "  which 
his  genial  warmth  had  called  forth  from  the  bosom 
of  the  earth,  and  reared  to  maturity.  They  sacri- 
ficed as  an  oblation  of  gratitude,  some  of  the  ani- 
mals which  were  indebted  to  his  influence  for  nour- 
ishment. They  presented  to  him  choice  specimens 
of  those  works  of  ingenuity  which  his  light  had 
•guided  the  hand  of  man  in  forming.  But  the  Incas 
never  stained  their  altars  with  human  blood,  nor 
could  they  conceive  that  their  beneficent  father,  the 
Sun,  would  be  delighted  with  such  horrid  victims." 

Among  the  multifarious  worship  of  the  zealous 
heathens,  must  not  be  omitted  a  more  ample  descrip- 
tion of  the  votive  offerings,  which  were  gifts  condi- 
tionally promised  to  the  gods,  under  the  solemn  obli- 
gation of  a  vow.  In  consequence  of  such  a  vow, 
Jephthah,  though  a  judge  in  Israel,  immolated  his 
daughter,  an  only  child;  and  L.  Furius  Camillus 
was  banished  by  the  people  of  Rome,  for  distribut- 
ing, contrary  to  his  vow,  the  spoils  which  his  valor 
had  won  at  Veii.  Kennett,  treating  of  the  Roman 
games  designated  as  the  votivi,  says :  "  They  were 
the  effect  of  any  vow  made  by  the  magistrates  or 
generals,  when  they  set  forward  on  any  expedition, 


30  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

to  be  performed  in  case  they  returned  successful. 
These  were  sometimes  occasioned  by  the  advice  of 
the  Sibylline  oracles,  or  of  the  soothsayers ;  and 
many  times  proceeded  purely  from  a  principle  of 
devotion  and  piety  in  the  generals.  Such  particu- 
larly were  the  Ludi  3Iagni,  often  mentioned  in  his- 
torians, especially  by  Livy.  Thus,  he  informs  us, 
that  in  the  year  of  the  city  five  hundred  and  thirty- 
six,  Fabius  Maximus,  the  dictator,  to  appease  the 
anger  of  the  gods,  and  to  obtain  success  against  the 
Carthaginian  power,  upon  the  direction  of  the  Sibyl- 
line oracles,  vowed  the  great  games  to  Jupiter,  with 
a  prodigious  sum  to  be  expended  at  them ;  besides 
three  hundred  oxen  to  be  sacrificed  to  Jupiter,  and 
several  others  to  the  rest  of  the  deities.  M.  Acilius, 
the  consul,  did  the  same  thing  in  the  war  against 
Antiochus.  And  we  have  some  examples  of  these 
games  being  made  quinquennial,  or  to  return  every 
five  years.  They  were  celebrated  with  Circensian 
sports  four  days  together."  * 

*  The  Circensian  games  were  performed  in  the  circus  at  Rome. 
They  were  dedicated  to  the  god  Consus,  and  were  first  instituted 
by  Romulus  at  the  rape  of  the  Sabines.  They  were  in  imitation 
of  the  Olympian  games,  and  by  way  of  eminence  Avere  often 
called  the  great  games.  They  were  not  appropriated  to  one  par- 
ticular exhibition,  but  were  equally  celebrated  for  leaping,  wrest- 
ling, throwing  the  quoit  and  javelin,  races  on  foot  as  well  as  in 
chariots,  and  boxing.  The  celebration '  continued,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  four  days,  beginning  on  the  fifteenth  of  September. 
All  games  in  general  that  were  exhibited  in  the  circus,  were  soon 
after  called  Circensian  games.  Some  sea-fights  and  skirmishes, 
denominated  naumachi  by  the  Romans,  were  likewise  performed 
in  the  circus.f     As  the  god  Consus  presided  over  counsels,  the 

t  Vide  iEneid  of  Virgil. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         31 

Beside  animals  and  the  usual  offerings  which  they 
presented  to  their  deities,  Tacitus  informs  us  that  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  ancient  Germans,  on  stated 
days,  to  sacrifice  human  victims  to  Mercury,  by 
whom  we  are  to  understand,  says  Murphy,  in  a  note 
on  this  passage,  and  on  the  authority  of  Schedius, 
de  Diis  Germanis,  Teutates ;  a  name  which  is  cognate 
with  Tuisko  or  Thuisko,  who,  according  to  some 
authors,  was  the  god  of  justice  among  the  Teutonic 
people,  and  apparently  the  same  as  the  Tyr  of  the 
Scandinavians. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  evidences  of  a  diver- 
sified and  prolific  devotion,  we  may  observe  that 
splendid  vestments,  costly  trinkets,  the  blood-stained 
trophies  of  war,  and  the  first-born  of  some  nations, 
were  consecrated  to  deistic  service.  Nor  were  the 
mineral  resources  of  the  earth  overlooked  amid  the 
endless  modes  and  resources  of  heathen  worship. 
Subjected  to  the  plastic  art  of  metallurgy,  they  were 
formed  into  crude  or  fair  iconic  forms,  or  converted 
into  ritual  paraphernalia,  in  honor  or  for  the  service 
of  polytheism.  Having  related  the  partial  success 
with  which  Croesus  had  met  in  his  suit  before  the 
most  celebrated  oracles  of  his  time,  Herodotus  adds : 
"  Croesus,  after  these  things,  determined  to  conciliate 
the  divinity  of  Delphi  by  a  great  and  magnificent 
sacrifice.  He  offered  up  three  thousand  chosen  vic- 
tims ;  and  he  collected  a  great  number  of  couches 


festivals  observed  in  his  honor,  were  also  known  under  the  appel- 
lation of  consualia,  which  was  probably  the  most  ancient  by 
which  they  were  known  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Seven- 
Hills. 


32  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

decorated  with  gold  and  silver,  many  goblets  of  gold, 
and  vests  of  purple ;  all  these  he  consumed  together 
on  one  immense  pile,  thinking  by  these  means  to 
render  the  deity  more  auspicious  to  his  hopes  :  he 
persuaded  his  subjects,  also,  to  offer  up  in  like  man- 
ner the  proper  objects  of  sacrifice  they  respectively 
possessed.  As,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  above  cere- 
mony, a  considerable  quantity  of  gold  had  run 
together,  he  formed  of  it  a  number  of  tiles.  The 
larger  of  these  were  six  palms  long,  the  smaller 
three ;  but  none  of  them  were  less  than  a  palm  in 
thickness,  and  they  were  one  hundred  and  seventeen 
in  number:  four  were  of  the  purest  gold,  weighing 
each  one  talent  and  a  half;  the  rest  were  of  inferior 
quality,  but  of  the  weight  of  two  talents.  He  con- 
structed also  a  lion  of  pure  gold,  which  weighed  ten 
talents.  It  was  originally  placed  at  the  Delphian 
temple,  on  the  above  gold  tiles ;  but  when  this  edi- 
fice was  burned,  it  fell  from  its  place,  and  now  stands 
in  the  Corinthian  treasury ;  it  lost,  however,  by  the 
fire,  three  talents  and  a  half  of  its  former  weight. 
Croesus,  moreover,  sent  to  Delphi  two  large  cisterns, 
one  of  gold,  and  one  of  silver :  that  of  gold  was 
placed  on  the  right  hand  in  the  vestibule  of  the  tem- 
ple ;  the  silver  one  on  the  left.  These  also  were 
removed  when  the  temple  was  consumed  by  fire  : 
the  golden  goblet  weighed  eight  talents  and  a  half 
and  twelve  minae,  and  was  afterwards  placed  in  the 
Clazomenian  treasury :  that  of  silver  is  capable  of 
holding  six  hundred  amphorae ;  it  is  placed  at  the 
entrance  of  the  temple,  and  used  by  the  inhabitants 
of  Delphi  in  their  Theophanian  festival :  they  assert 
it  to  have  been  the  work  of  Theodoras  of  Samos,  to 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         33 

which  opinion,  as  it  is  evidently  the  production  of 
no  mean  artist,  I  am  inclined  to  accede.  The  Corin- 
thian also  possesses  four  silver  casks,  which  were 
sent  by  Croesus,  in  addition  to  the  above,  to  Delphi. 
His  munificence  did  not  yet  cease  :  he  presented  also 
two  basins,  one  of  gold,  another  of  silver.  An  in- 
scription on  that  of  gold  asserts  it  to  have  been  the 
gift  of  the  Lacedemonians ;  but  it  is  not  true,  for 
this  also  was  the  gift  of  Croesus.  To  gratify  the 
Lacedemonians,  a  certain  Delphian  wrote  this  inscrip- 
tion :  Although  I  am  able,  I  do  not  think  proper  to 
disclose  his  name.  The  boy  through  whose  hand 
the  water  flows,  was  given  by  the  Lacedemonians  ; 
the  basins  undoubtedly  were  not.  Many  other 
smaller  presents  accompanied  these ;  among  which 
were  silver  dishes,  and  the  figure  of  a  woman  in 
gold,  three  cubits  high,  who,  according  to  the  Del- 
phians,  was  the  person  who  made  the  bread  for  the 
family  of  Croesus.  The  prince,  besides  all  that  we 
have  enumerated,  consecrated  at  Delphi  his  wife's 
necklace  and  girdles." 

From  the  preceding  investigations,  we  learn  that 
the  offerings  of  the  gods  were  almost  as  multifarious 
as  the  individual  objects  of  nature,  and  that  they  de- 
manded extensive  contributions  from  every  depart- 
ment of  the  external  world.  Though  the  worship 
of  the  gods  was  often  shrouded  in  the  mien  and 
weeds  of  mourning,  when  tears  and  lamentations  at- 
tested a  forlorn  hope,  or  the  dread  of  impending 
doom ;  yet  generally  it  was  of  a  placid  and  cheerful 
character,  and  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  as  also 
the  dance  and  scenic  representations,  entered  exten- 
sively among  its  duties,  or  increased  and  elevated  the 


34  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

tone  of  its  pleasures,  as  well  as  the  solemnity  of  its 
effects,  and  the  significance  of  its  expression.  The 
sacred  fire,  too  —  the  emblem  of  the  sun  and  the 
type  of  purity,  guarded  by  priests  or  vestal  virgins, 
burned  perpetually  on  many  of  the  altars  of  anti- 
quity, and  in  the  age  of  Zoroaster  it  was  the  only 
national  symbol  of  public  worship  in  the  Persian 
empire.  All  offerings  or  expressions  of  homage  ob- 
jectively considered,  were  intended  either  to  supply 
absolute  wants ;  merely  to  gratify  the  senses ;  or  to 
swell  the  pomp,  and  magnify  the  name,  of  the  deity. 
The  metamorphoses  of  the  gods :  their  birth,  death, 
state  of  languishment,  or  greatest  vigor  and  glory, 
which  constituted  a  main  feature  and  profound  sig- 
nificance of  their  lives,  were  likewise  celebrated  with 
solemn  rites  and  festive  honors.  Some  of  the  gods, 
as  those  of  the  ancient  Persians,  had  no  temples,  but 
were  adored  under  the  cerulean  vault  of  heaven,  es- 
pecially on  the  tops  of  mountains;  some,  as  those 
of  the  Arabians,  had  but  one  :  the  celebrated  Caaba; 
and  others,  as  those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  Assyria, 
Hindostan,  and  Egypt,  were  honored  with  numerous 
and  gorgeous  structures.*  The  Capitolium  at  Rome, 
which  was  at  once  a  temple  and  a  citadel,  may  serve 

*  The  gods  of  the  Germanic  people  were  usually  worshipped 
in  woods  and  sacred  groves,  and  in  the  age  of  Tacitus,  they 
could  boast  of  but  one  temple,  the  name  of  which  was  Tanfan ; 
for,  says  the  Roman  historian,  "  There  deities  are  not  immured  in 
temples." 

"  We  are  told  by  antiquarians,"  writes  Murphy  on  Tacitus, 
"that  the  word,  Tanfan,  was  composed  of  tan,  sylva,  a  wood,  and 
fane,  dominus,  or  lord.  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye  says  it  was  dedi- 
cated to  the  first  cause  of  all,  or  the  supreme  being." 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         35 

to  illustrate  the  concluding  part  of  this  sentence. 
This  vast  and  stately  edifice  stood  upon  the  Tar- 
peian  rock.  It  was  planned  by  Tarquinius  Priscus, 
begun  by  Scrvius  Tullius,  finished  by  Tarquinius 
Superbus,  and  consecrated  by  the  consul  Horatius, 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins  from  Rome. 
The  ample  base  of  the  capitol  embraced  four  acres 
of  ground ;  the  front  was  embellished  with  three 
rows  of  pillars,  and  the  other  sides  with  two.  The 
ascent  to  it  from  the  ground,  was  by  a  hundred  steps. 
The  magnificence  and  riches  of  this  temple,  are  al- 
most incredible.  All  the  consuls  successively  made 
donations  to  it,  and  Augustus  bestowed  upon  it  at 
one  time  two  thousand  pounds  weight  of  gold.  Its 
thresholds  were  of  brass,  and  its  roof  of  gold.  It 
was  adorned  with  vessels  and  shields  of  solid  silver, 
with  chariots  of  gold,  etc.  It  was  in  the  capitol 
where  the  consuls  and  magistrates  offered  sacrifices 
when  they  first  entered  upon  their  offices ;  and  there 
it  was  whither  the  triumphal  processions  of  the 
Romans  were  always  conducted  as  to  the  crowning 
climax  of  their  glory.  This  noble  structure,  it  is 
said,  owes  its  name  to  an  accident.  When  its  foun- 
dation was  sunk,  a  man's  head,  called  Tolus,  was 
found  in  the  earth,  and  from  this  circumstance  the 
hill  was  denominated  the  Capitolium — a  ccqrite  Toll. 


SECTION    III. 

SACRED  PLACES  AND   RELIGIOUS  FESTIVALS. 


CHAPTER   I. 


SACRED      PLACES. 


According  as  the  pursuits  of  mankind  require 
fixed  residences,  like  those  of  the  agriculturist,  or 
allow  of  a  roving  life,  like  that  of  the  nomadcs,  the 
places  of  divine  worship  arc  defined  and  permanent, 
or  shifting  and  uncertain.  The  nomadic  tribes  carry 
with  them  in  their  pastural  migrations,  their  idols, 
their  victims,  and  their  priests,  whereas  people  of 
sedentary  or  agrarian  vocations,  make  use  of  the 
same  consecrated  places  from  one  generation  to 
another.  Warriors  and  mariners,  though  they  may 
observe  times  and  seasons,  likewise  adapt  their  devo- 
tional exercises  to  the  places  whither  fate  or  duty 
may  lead  them.  Natural  curiosities  often  invest  cer- 
tain localities  with  a  mysterious  sanctity,  and  point 
them  out  as  fit  fanes  of  the  gods  and  of  devotion ; 
as,  the  cave  at  Delphi ;  the  grotto  of  Trophonius ; 
the  fountain  at  Dodona,  which  rose  and  fell  at  dif- 
ferent intervals  of  the  day ;  the  Olympian  fountain 

(36) 


THE    HEATHEN    RELIGION,    ETC.  37 

on  the  banks  of  the  Alpheus,  which  successively 
dried  up  or  reappeared  every  alternate  year,  and  in 
the  vicinity  of  which  jets  of  flame  issued  from  the 
earth;  the  awe-inspiring  and  sublime  falls  of  Niag- 
ara, which  once  invited  the  visits  and  the  homage  of 
the  remotest  savages,  inhabiting  America's  primeval 
forests ;  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges,  especially  the 
latter,  which,  in  the  eyes  and  the  faith  of  every  poly- 
theistic  Hindoo,  is  invested  with  a  threefold  sanc- 
tity. Tiie  Russians,  also,  ranked  two  holy  rivers 
among  the  objects  of  their  devotion,  and  the  conse- 
crated localities  of  worship — the  Dnieper,  or  Borys- 
thenes,  and  the  Bug,  or  Bog.  The  former,  particu- 
larly, was  universally  revered  among  those  people, 
and  in  the  holy  city  Kiev,  or  Kiew,  situated  on  its 
right  bank,  nearly  all  the  gods  of  the  Slavic  race 
were  at  one  time  assembled.  In  an  island,  at  the 
distance  of  a  four  days'  journey  from  its  mouth,  the 
inhabitants  of  Kiew,  in  their  annual  voyages  to  the 
Black  Sea,  in  the  month  of  June,  offered  their  sacri- 
fices under  a  sacred  oak.  Indeed,  among  many  of 
the  ancients,  certain  trees  were  regarded  as  the  pre- 
eminently sanctified  media  between  the  gods  and 
mankind. 

The  people  of  Syria,  Samos,  Athens,  Dodona,  Ar- 
cadia, Germany,  etc.,  had  their  arborescent  shrines ; 
and  the  gigantic  palm-tree  in  the  isle  of  Delos,  daph- 
ne jrrologonos,  was  believed  by  its  simple  inhabi- 
tants to  be  the  favorite  production  of  the  goddess 
Latona.  Among  the  Scandinavians,  a  temple  was 
sometimes  distinguished  by  the  name  of  Hag;  as 
Baldur's  Hag,  Thor's  Hag,  etc.,  a  term  which  is 
synonymous  with  the  German  Hain,  a  grove.     It  is 

4 


38  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

said  that  holy  trees  still  exist  among  the  northern 
Finnlanders.  Trees,  hills,  and  fountains  were  the 
symbols  and  the  abodes  of  the  gods  among  the  an- 
cient Hessians,  and  they  both  rendered  them  homage 
and  brought  them  offerings.  An  enormous  oak, 
called  Thor's  oak,  or  arbor  Jovis,  was  cut  down  by 
order  of  Winfred,  the  Apostle  of  the  Germans,  while 
the  votaries  of  the  god  of  thunder  beheld  the  sacri- 
legious deed  with  dismay  and  abhorrence,  fearing 
every  moment  that  some  dire  convulsion  of  nature 
would  take  place,  or  hoping,  at  least,  that  signal  ven- 
geance might  be  inflicted  upon  the  head  of  the  impi- 
ous missionary.*  Mountains,  the  natural  monuments 
of  the  Divine  power  and  greatness,  and  which  it  was 
fondly  presumed  would  bring  man  into  a  closer 
proximity  with  the  immortal  gods,  figured  conspicu- 
ously among  the  holy  places  of  antiquity;  as,  the 
Borj  in  Persia,  the  Mera  in  India,  the  Amanus  in 
Cilicia,  the  Olympus  in  Thessaly,  the  Ida  in  Troas 
and  in  Crete.  The  Germans  had  their  Donner-Berg — 
Thor's  mountain,  and  the  Brocken  —  the  mountain 

*  The  gods  of  the  ancient  Prussians  showed  a  decided  predilec- 
tion both  for  the  oak  and  the  linden.  The  ground  upon  which  they 
stood  was  holy  ground,  and  called  Romowe.  Under  their  ample 
shade  the  principal  gods  of  the  Prussians  were  worshipped.  The  - 
most  celebrated  oak  was  at  Romowe,  in  the  country  of  the  Na- 
tanges.  Its  trunk  was  of  an  extraordinary  size,  and  its  branches 
so  dense  and  diffusive,  that  neither  rain  nor  snow  could  penetrate 
through  them.  It  is  affirmed  that  its  foliage  enjoyed  an  amaran- 
thine green,  and  that  it  afforded  amulets  to  both  man  and  beast, 
under  the  firm  belief  of  the  former,  at  least,  that  thus  employed, 
it  would  prove  a  sure  preventive  against  every  species  of  evil. 
The  Romans,  too,  were  great  admirers  of  this  way  of  worship, 
and  therefore  had  their  Luci  in  most  parts  of  the  city. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.  39 

of   altars.      That  was  the  Olympus  of  the  Franks ; 
this,  of  the   Saxons.     In  the  dioeess  of  Oriwesi,  in 

Finnland,  is  a  high  cape  which  bears  the  name  of 
Erapyha,  or  very  holy,  where  a  square  hearth  of 
stones,  which  constituted  a  place  of  sacrifice,  may- 
still  be  seen.  The  central  seat  of  Swedish  idolatry 
was  established  at  Upsal,  in  the  peninsula  of  Upland. 
Lelhra,  now  Lei  re,  in  the  island  of  Zeeland,  was  the 
city  of  the  gods  among  the  Danes.  Here  was  the 
holy  place  where  the  nation  assembled  to  oiler  up 
their  sacrifices,  to  prefer  their  prayers,  and  to  receive 
the  choicest  blessings  of  the  gods.  In  the  Isle  of 
Rugen,  in  the  Baltic  Sea,  the  Pomeranians  and 
other  neighboring  tribes  recognized  the  focal  point 
of  their  gods  and  of  their  common  devotion.  While 
Rhetra,  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  contained  the 
associated  pantheon  of  the  Scandinavians,  the  Finns, 
and  their  Slavic  or  Slavonic  neighbors,  the  centre  of 
the  religious  worship  of  the  ancient  Britons,  was  the 
Isle  of  Mona,  or  Anglesey,  in  the  Irish  sea. 

The  only  sacred  structures  appropriated  to  divine 
worship,  of  which  some  nations  could  boast,  were 
rude  altars  made  of  large,  flat  stones ;  while  others, 
like  the  Celts  in  Britain,  had  their  altars  inclosed 
with  circular  rows  of  upright  stones.  These  inclos- 
ures  were  designated  by  the  terms  Caer,  Col*,  and 
Cylch,  which  denote  respectively  a  circle,  and  they 
constituted  the  first  rudiments  of  temples.  The 
smaller  Cur  had  but  one  row  of  stones ;  the  larger 
three  concentric  rows  :  four  such  rows,  it  is  said,  con- 
stitute the  highest  number  which  has  heretofore  been 
discovered.  It  appears  that  three  rows  were  the 
usual  number,  and  that  the  top  of  the  stones  which 


40  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

composed  them,  was  covered  with  an  architrave,  or 
a  succession  of  large,  flat  stones,  embracing  and  sus- 
taining the  whole  framework  of  the  rude  specimen 
of  peristylic  architecture.* 


CHAPTER    II. 


RELIGIOUS    FESTIVALS. 


Numerous  and  often  splendid  festivals  formed  one 
of  the  distinguishing  traits  of  heathenism.  Hence 
the  people  of  antiquity  observed  almost  universally 
lunar  and  solar,  vernal  and  autumnal  festivals  ;  seed- 
time and  harvest  festivals ;  festivals  commemorative 
of  politico-national  or  provincial  calamities  or  bless- 
ings ;  and  festivals  which  were  dedicated  to  the 
metamorphoses,  or  life  and  death,  suffering  and  glory 
of  the  gods.  They  were  celebrated  with  sacred  games, 
the  music  of  the  lyre  and  the  flute,  the  choral  dance, 
the  hymn  —  epe,  hiero  —  pleasure  excursions  and 
solemn  processions,  which  were  often  accompanied 
by  the  images  of  the  gods,  and  which  were  intended 
to  honor  or  to  gratify  their  celestial  prototypes,  as 
well  as  to  be  the  mean»  to  avert  an  evil  or  to  insure 


*  The  catacombs  of  Egypt,  which,  in  tlieir  more  perfect  form 
often  approached  the  fair  proportions  of  a  temple,  and  the  grotto- 
temples  of  Hindostan,  seem  to  have  furnished  the  prototype  of 
the  vast  and  gloomy  style  of  the  Gothic  order  of  sacred  archi- 
tecture. 


IX  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         41 

a  blessing;*  dramatic  representations,  in  which  the 
lives  or  the  exploits  of  the  deities  were  enacted  by 
their  devout  votaries,  both  for  their  own  edification 
and  that  of  the  delighted  and  sympathizing  specta- 
tors :  all  these  and  similar  modes  of  festive  devotion, 
constituted  an  important  part  of  the  ritual  service  of 
the  polytheist.  To  this  day  the  heathen  chants  his 
war-song,  or  shouts  his  poean  of  triumph,  while  in- 
strumental music  and  the  dance  complete  the  rhythm 
of  his  religio-poetic  emotions  or  aspirations.  The 
Greek  festivals  bore  a  decidedly  cheerful  character. 
Hence  music  and  orchestic,  masquerates,  and  scenic 
exhibitions  of  all  kinds,  generally  accompanied  them. 
Public  and  private  sacrificial  festivals  were  usually 
followed  by  festive  entertainments.  The  ancient 
Greeks  did  not  recline  or  lie,  but  sit  at  their  relig- 
ious feasts,  while  they  observed  the  strictest  pro- 
priety in  their  demeanor  and  conversation ;  for  they 
firmly  believed  that  the  gods,  though  invisible  to 
mortal  eyes,  were  present  at  their  sacred  meals.  The 
festive  ceremonies  of  the  Egyptians  and  the  Romans, 
wore  a  more  grave  and  mysterious  air.  The  spright- 
ly, jouisant  Greeks  were  struck  with  a  mingled  feel- 
ing of  self-reproach  and  astonishment,  when  they 
beheld  the  childlike  simplicity  and  profound  piety  — 
eusebeia,  with  which  the  earlier  Romans  observed 
their  devotional  acts.  The  intimate  connection  which 
the  order  of  Roman  priests  called  Epulones,  had 
with  the  celebration  of  a  public  feast  of  the  Romans, 

*  The  Greek  divinities,  for  instance,  of  the  age  in  which  the 
fine  arts  flourished  among  the  Hellenic  people,  were  human  beings 
graduated  to  the  fairest  and  most  perfect  ideal-type  of  humanity. 

4* 


42  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

will  serve  in  some  measure  to  illustrate  the  nature 
of  the  sacred  festivals  of  the  heathens.  "  They  had 
their  name,"  writes  Kennett,  "  from  a  custom  which 
obtained  among  the  Romans,  in  time  of  public  dan- 
ger, of  making  a  sumptuous  feast  in  their  temples, 
to  which  they  did,  as  it  were,  invite  the  deities  them- 
selves ;  for  their  statues  were  brought  on  rich  beds, 
with  their  pulviiiaria  too,  or  pillows,  and  placed  at 
the  most  honorable  part  of  the  table  as  the  principal 
guests.  These  regalias  they  called  epulce,  or  lectis- 
ternia ;  the  care  of  which  belonged  to  the  Epulones." 
The  sacred  games  of  antiquity,  in  which  the  his- 
tory and  the  character  of  the  gods  were  faithfully 
delineated  in  the  performances  of  the  different  actors 
in  the  festive  scenes,  may  justly  be  regarded  as  the 
basis  of  the  drama  which,  in  its  polytheistic  stage  of 
development,  was  of  a  decidedly  religious  character. 
Smith,  in  his  "  Festivals,  Games,  and  Amusements," 
etc.,  communicates  some  facts  relative  to  the  Thes- 
pian art,  which  cannot  fail  to  interest  and  instruct 
the  reader,  while  they  add  another  proof  of  the  all- 
pervading  influence  of  religion  upon  the  lives  and 
amusements  of  the  ancients.  "  When  the  per- 
formances were  concluded,"  writes  this  author,  "  dif- 
ferent bodies  of  magistrates  ascended  the  stage,  and 
made  libations  on  an  altar  consecrated  to  Bacchus, 
thus  elevating  the  theatrical  entertainments  by  im- 
pressing upon  them  a  character  of  sanctity.  The 
opening  display  was  sometimes  very  beautiful  and 
grand.  Aged  men,  women,  and  children,  are  beheld 
prostrate  near  an  altar  imploring  the  protection  of 
the  gods  and  the  aid  of  their  sovereign.  Youthful 
princes  arrive  in  a  hunting  dress,  and  surrounded  by 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         43 

their  friends  and  their  dogs,  sing  hymns  in  honor  of 
Diana;  or  a  chariot  appears,  which  brings  in  solemn 
pomp  to  the  camp  of  the  Greeks  Clytenmestra,  at- 
tended by  her  slaves,  and  holding  the  infant  Orestes 
sleeping  in  her  arms.     Here  Ulysses  and  Diomede 
enter  by  night  the  Trojan  camp,  through  which  they 
quickly  spread  alarm,  the  sentinels  running  together 
from  all  sides,  crying,  Stop !  stop !  kill !  kill !     There 
the  Grecian  soldiers,  after  the  taking  of  Troy,  appear 
on  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  and  begin  to  reduce  that 
celebrated  city  to  ashes.     At  another  time  coffins  are 
brought,  containing  the  bodies  of  the  chiefs  who  fell 
at  the  siege  of  Thebes ;  their  funerals  are  celebrated 
on  the  stage,  and  their  widows  express  their  grief  in 
mournful  songs.  _One  of  them,  named  Evadne,  is 
seen  on  the  top  of  a  rock,  at  the  foot  of  which  is 
erected  the  funeral  pile  of  Capaneus,  her  husband. 
She  is  habited  in  her  richest  ornaments ;  and,  deaf 
to  the  entreaties  of  her  father  and  the  cries  of  her 
companions,  precipitates  herself  into  the  devouring 
flames.     The  marvellous,  also,  adds  to  the  charm  of 
the   exhibition.      Some   god    descends   in   dramatic 
machinery ;  the  shade  of  Polydorus  bursts  from  the 
bosom  of  the  earth ;  the  ghost  of  Achilles  appears 
to  the  assembly  of  the  Greeks,  and  commands  them 
to  sacrifice  the  daughter  of  Priam;  Helen  ascends 
to  the  vault  of  heaven,  where  she  is  transformed  into 
a  constellation ;  or  Medea  traverses  the  air  in  a  car 
drawn  by  dragons." 

The  following  ritual  observances,  calculated  to 
throw  additional  light  upon  the  theme  of  our  inves- 
tigations, deserve  a  notice  in  this  chapter.  Speaking 
of  the  sacrifices,  games,  and  festivals  sacred  to  Bac- 


44  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,    ETC. 

chus,  Tooke  thus  continues :  "  The  sacrifices  them- 
selves were  various,  and  celebrated  with  different 
ceremonies,  according  to  the  variety  of  places  and 
nations.  They  were  celebrated  on  stated  days  of 
the  year,  with  the  greatest  regard  to  religion,  as  it 
was  then  professed.  Oscophoria  were  the  first  sacri- 
fices offered  up  to  Bacchus :  they  were  instituted  by 
the  Phoenicians,  and  when  they  were  celebrated,  the 
boys,  carrying  vine-leaves  in  their  hands,  went  in 
ranks,  praying  from  the  temple  of  Bacchus  to  the 
chapel  of  Pallas.  The  Epilenaea  were  games  cele- 
brated in  the  time  of  vintage,  before  the  press  for 
squeezing  the  grapes  was  invented.  They  contended 
with  one  another,  in  treading  the  grapes,  who  should 
soonest  press  out  most  must;  and  in  the  mean  time 
they  sung  the  praises  of  Bacchus,  begging  that  the 
must  might  be  sweet  and  good."  The  Apaturian 
festivals  were  likewise  instituted  in  honor  of  the 
god  of  wine,  and  were  principally  observed  by  the 
Athenians:  their  praiseworthy  aim  was  to  illustrate 
how  deplorably  mankind  are  deceived  and  injured  by 
the  excessive  use  of  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape. 


SECTION   IV. 


PRIESTS  AND  IDOLS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE    PRIESTS. 


It  has  been  asserted  by  some  authors,  that  the 
most  ancient  priests  were  jugglers,  similar  in  charac- 
ter to  the  modern  Shamans  of  Siberia,  who  are 
robed  in  leathern  cloaks  embellished  with  numerous 
little  bells,  during  the  exercise  of  their  meretricious 
profession ;  or,  like  the  fetich-jongleurs  of  some 
negro  tribes,  whose  forehead  is  decorated  with  horns 
while  they  are  engaged  in  the  offices  of  superstition. 
It  does  not  require  much  clairvoyance  to  perceive 
that  this  hypothesis  is  contrary  to  every  idea  of  truth, 
as  well  as  all  the  evidences  of  experience.  For  the 
incipient  state  of  any  art,  pursuit,  or  species  of 
knowledge,  as  well  as  of  human  existence,  is  simple, 
undisguised,  sincere,  true.  Trickery  and  falsehood 
can  never  be  the  normal,  but  they  may  be,  and  often 
are  the  corrupt  state  of  a  profession  or  form  of 
being :  children,  unvitiated  by  their  superiors,  never 
dissemble,  but  adults  are  often  adepts  in  the  servile 

(45) 


46  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

vice,  as  the  ancient  Roman  denominated  the  sin  of 
lying!  That  the  heterogeneous  functions  of  priest, 
conjurer,  or  magician,  were  sometimes  united  in  one 
person,  I  shall  not  presume  to  doubt  in  the  face  of 
sacred  history. 

It  was  strictly  in  conformity  with  the  spirit  of 
heathenism,  that  mankind  should  honor  and  confide 
in  persons  who  claimed  and  were  believed  to  be,  the 
mediators  between  the  gods  and  themselves,  and  the 
only  reliable  as  well  as  possible  channel  of  a  divine 
revelation  or  communication.  Priests  only  —  such 
was  the  childlike  creed  of  the  earlier  ages,  could 
bring  an  acceptable  offering  to  the  gods.  They, 
alone,  as  the  ministers  and  vicegerents  of  the  celes- 
tial powers,  durst  venture  into  a  closer  proximity 
with  them  ;  while  by  fasting,  prayer,  frequent  ablu- 
tions, and  ascetic  mortifications,  they  hoped  to  merit 
the  distinction  to  which  they  aspired,  and  to  deserve 
the  confidence  of  their  fellow-beings.  The  sacer- 
dotal  profession  was  usually, either  hereditary  or  elec- 
tive. If  the  former  was  the  case,  families,  castes,  or 
tribes,  officiated  at  the  altars  of  the  gods,  as,  for 
instance,  the  Potitii  and  the  Pinarii  among  the 
Romans,  the  Brahmins  among  the  Hindoos,  and  the 
Druids  among  the  Celtic  nations  ;  if  the  latter,  either 
the  priests,  the  monarch,  or  the  principal  citizens, 
made  the  necessary  appointments,  which  were  valid 
only  for  a  definite  period,  or  continued  in  force  dur- 
ing the  life  of  the  incumbent. 

While  free  institutions  were  cherished,  and  liberal 
opinions  respected  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
the  people  generally  supplied  the  vacancies  which  oc- 
curred in  the  priestly  corps.     The  choice  among  the 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         47 

candidates  was  ordinarily  decided  by  a  proper  regard 
to  their  virtues  and  social  positions,  or  their  public 
services ;  sometimes,  however,  the  weight  and  influ- 
ence of  their  families,  or  their  arts  and  intrigues, 
determined  a  decision  in  their  favor :  Ca?sar  made 
priest  of  Jupiter,  M.  Antonius,  augur,  etc.  The 
high-priest,  or  pontifex  maxim  us,  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  all  the  sacerdotal  orders  of  his  country.  In 
dignity,  he  was  seldom  inferior  to  the  reigning  mon- 
arch, and  in  the  weight  of  the  social  scale,  often  his 
superior.  Indeed,  the  tuiulus  and  the  crown  often 
covered  the  same  head.  Plutarch,  in  speaking  of 
him,  says :  "  He  is  the  interpreter  of  all  sacred  rites, 
or  rather  a  superintendent  of  religion,  having  the 
care  not  only  of  public  sacrifices,  but  even  of  private 
rites  and  offerings,  forbidding  the  people  to  depart 
from  the  stated  ceremonies,  and  teaching  them  how 
to  honor  and  propitiate  the  gods."  *  "  The  master 
or  superintendent  of  the  pontifices,"  writes  Kennett, 
"  was  one  of  the  most  honorable  offices  in  the  com- 
monwealth.  Numa,  when  he  instituted  the  order, 
invested  himself  first  with  his  dignity,  as  Plutarch 
informs  us  ;  though  Livy  attributes  it  to  another  per- 
son of  the  same.  name.  Festus's  definition  of  this 
great  priest  is,  Judex  atque  Arbiter  rerum  humanarum 
divinarumque,  the  Judge  and  Arbiter  of  divine  and 
human  affairs.  Upon  this  account  all  the  emperors, 
after  the  example  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus, 
either  actually  took  upon  them  the  office,  or  at  least 
used  the  name.  And  even  the  Christian  emperors, 
for  some  time,  retained  this  in  the  ordinary  enumera- 


*  Langliornean  translation. 


48  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

tion  of  their  titles ;  till  the  time  of  Gratian,  who,  as 
we  learn  from  Zosimus,  absolutely  refused  it.  Poly- 
dore  Virgil  does  not  question  but  this  was  an  infalli- 
ble omen  of  the  authority  which  the  bishop  of  Rome 
enjoys  to  this  day,  under  the  name  of  Pontifex  Max- 
imus.  The  office  of  the  pontifices,  was  to  give  judg- 
ment in  all  causes  relating  to  religion ;  to  inquire 
into  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  inferior  priests, 
and  to  punish  them  if  they  saw  occasion ;  to  pre- 
scribe rules  for  public  worship ;  regulate  the  feasts, 
sacrifices,  and  all  other  sacred  institutions.  Tully, 
in  his  oration  to  them  for  his  house,  tells  them,  that 
the  honor  and  safety  of  the  commonwealth,  the  lib- 
erty of  the  people,  the  houses  and  fortunes  of  the 
citizens,  and  the  very  gods  themselves,  were  all  in- 
trusted to  their  care,  and  depended  wholly  on  their 
wisdom  and  management. 

"  There  are  but  two  accounts  of  the  derivation  of 
the  name  of  the  pontifices,  and  both  very  uncertain; 
either  from  pons  and  facere ;  because  they  first  built 
the  Sublician  bridge  in  Rome,  and  had  the  care  of  its 
repair ;  or  from  posse  and  facere,  where  facere  must 
be  interpreted  to  signify  the  same  as  offerre  and  sacri- 
ficare.  The  first  of  these  is  the  most  received  opin- 
ion ;  and  yet  Plutarch  himself  hath  called  it  absurd. 
At  the  first  institution  of  them  by  Numa,  the  num- 
ber was  confined  to  four,  who  were  constantly  chosen 
out  of  the  nobility,  till  the  year  of  the  city  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-four,  when  five  more  were  ordered  to 
be  added  of  the  commons,  at  the  same  time  that  the 
augurs  received  the  like  addition.  And  as  the 
augurs  had  a  college,  so  the  pontifices,  too,  were 
settled  in  such  a  body.     And  as   S^lla  afterwards 


/ 


.■    h  i  ft/iA 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         49 

added  seven  augurs,  so  he  added  as  many  Ponti- 
fices  to  the  college ;  the  first  eight  bearing  the  name 
of  Pontifices  majores,  and  the  rest  of  minores"  On 
the  canonical  observances,  the  dress,  the  diet,  etc.,  of 
the  Egyptian  priests,  Herodotus  thus  remarks:  "The 
priests  of  the  gods,  who  in  other  places  wear  their 
hair  long,  in  Egypt  wear  it  short.  Every  third  day 
they  shave  every  part  of  their  bodies,  to  prevent  ver- 
min or  any  species  of  impurity  from  adhering  to 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  gods ; 
the  priesthood  is  also  confined  to  one  particular 
mode  of  dress ;  they  have  one  vest  of  linen,  and 
their  shoes  are  made  of  the  byblus  ;  they  wash  them- 
selves in  cold  water  twice  in  the  course  of  the  day, 
and  as  often  in  the  night :  it  would  indeed  be  diffi- 
cult to  enumerate  their  religious  ceremonies,  all  of 
which  they  practise  with  superstitious  exactness. 
The  sacred  ministers  possess,  in  return,  many  and 
great  advantages :  they  are  not  obliged  to  consume 
any  part  of  their  domestic  property;  each  has  a 
moiety  of  the  sacred  viands  ready  dressed  assigned 
him,  besides  a  large  and  daily  allowance  of  beef  and 
of  geese ;  they  have  also  wine,  but  are  not  permit- 
ted to  feed  on  fish.  Beans  are  sown  in  no  part  of 
Egypt ;  neither  will  the  inhabitants  eat  them,  either 
boiled  or  raw :  the  priests  will  not  even  look  at  this 
pulse,   esteeming   it    exceedingly   unclean.*^     Every 


*  The  bean  was  indigenous  to  Egypt,  but  it  was  neither  culti- 
vated nor  used  as  an  article  of  food  by  the  inhabitants ;  for  in  the 
mythological  system  of  the  people  of  the  Nile,  as  well  as  in  that 
of  other  nations,  it  was  regarded  as  a  purely  material  or  tellurian 
production,  and  employed  as  the  botanical  symbol  of  whatever  is 

5 


50  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

god  has  several  attendant  priests,  and  one  of  supe- 
rior dignity,  who  presides  over  the  rest ;  when  any  one 
dies,  he  is  succeeded  by  his  son."  *  The  sacerdotal 
vestments  varied  with  the  occasion,  the  rank  of  the 
wearer,  and  the  character  and  greatness  of  the  god, 
of  whose  ritual  service  they  constituted  a  part. 
Pure  white  habits  made  of  the  byssus,  black  cloaks 
and  purple  tunics,  respectively  distinguished  the 
Egyptian,  the  Mexican,  and  the  Roman  priests.  A 
short  tunic  likewise  invested  the  sacred  persons  of 
the  austere  and  recluse  priests  of  the  Celts  —  the 
Druids,  whose  name  is  said  to  be  derived  from 
drus,  an  oak,  because  their  habitations  were  in  the 
woods. 

"  It  will  be  expected,"  writes  the  author  of  the 
Antiquities  of  Rome,  "that  the  habits  of  the  Roman 
priests  should  be  particularly  described;  but  we  have 
no  certain  intelligence,  only  what  concerned  the 
chief  of  them,  the  Augurs,  Flamens,  and  the  Pon- 
tifices.  The  augurs  wore  the  trabca,  first  dyed  with 
scarlet  and  afterwards  with  purple.  Rubenius  takes 
the  robe  which  Herod  in  derision  put  on  our  Saviour 
to  have  been  of  this  nature,  because  St.  Matthew 
calls  it  scarlet,  and  St.  Luke  purple.  Cicero  useth 
dibaphus  —  a  garment  twice  dyed,  for  the  augural 
robe.  The  proper  robe  of  the  flamens  was  the  laena, 
a  sort  of  purple  cldamys,  or  almost  a  double  gown, 
fastened  about  the  neck  with  a  buckle  or  clasp.     It 


low  and  grovelling.     It  was  of  the  earth  and  eartlihj  throughout, 
and  its  inflating  qualities  were  at  least  one  of  the  proofs  of  this 
hypothesis !  —  G. 
*  Beloe. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         51 

was  interwoven  curiously  with  gold,  so  as  to  appear 
very  splendid  and  magnificent.  The  pout  ill's  had 
the  honor  of  using  the  prcetexta;  and  so  had  the 
Epulones,  as  we  learn,  Livy,  lib.  43.  The  priests 
were  remarkable  for  modesty  in  apparel,  and  there- 
fore they  made  use  only  of  the  common  purple, 
never  affecting  the  more  chargeable  and  splendid. 
Thus  Cicero,  Veslitus  asper  nostra  hac  purpura  pie- 
beta  ac  pene  fusca.  He  calls  it  our  purple,  because 
he  himself  was  a  member  of  the  college  of  augurs. 
Servius,  when  he  reckons  up  the  several  sorts  of 
priests'  caps,  makes  the  galerus  one  of  them,  being 
composed  of  the  skin  of  the  beasts  offered  in  sacrifice ; 
the  .other  two  being  the  apex,  a  stitched  cap  in  the 
form  of  a  helmet,  with  the  addition  of  a  little  stick 
fixed  on  the  top,  and  wound  about  with  white  wool, 
properly  belonging  to  the  Jlamines ;  and  the  tutulus, 
a  woollen  turban,  much  like  the  former,  proper  to 
the  high-priest.  By  the  galerus  it  is  likely  he 
means  the  albo-g-alerus,  made  of  the  skin  of  a  white 
beast  offered  in  sacrifice,  with  the  addition  of  some 
twigs  taken  from  a  wild  olive-tree,  and  belonging 
only  to  Jupiter's  flamen."  A  sad  picture  of  sacer- 
dotal deterioration  and  languishment,  or  of  the 
mournful  and  paltry  remains  of  the  pristine  glory 
of  the  heathen  church,  gradually  but  certainly  glid- 
ing into  the  oblivious  wake  of  the  past,  yet  feebly 
struggling  in  the  cause  of  a  superannuated  and  in- 
ane ecclesiastical  system,  and  reluctantly  passing 
from  a  stage  upon  which  the .  gods  and  mankind 
once  played  so  interesting  and  important  a  part,  and 
which  has  for  ages  been  supported  and  embellished 
by  the  faith,  the  devotion,  the   hope,  ay,  the  pride, 


52  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  reason,  and  the  glory  of  priests  and  kings,  of 
heroes  and  statesmen,  of  poets  and  philosophers, 
will  close  this  chapter,  while  it  contrasts  in  imagina- 
tion the  disease  and  deformity  of  the  present,  with 
the  fresh  life  and  splendid  elegance  of  the  departed 
heathenism  of  Greece  and  Rome,  of  Egypt  and 
Carthage,  of  Persia  and  Phoenicia,  and  strikingly 
teaches  the  vicissitude  to  which  even  the  best  and 
the  greatest  institutions  of  human  society  are  infal- 
libly doomed. 

Doctor  Ward,  of  Serampore,  in  his  "  View  of  all 
Religions,  and  the  Religious  Ceremonies  of  all  Na- 
tions at  the  present  Day,"  thus  portrays  the  condi- 
tion and  character  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  China: 
"  The  priesthood  are  in  no  great  esteem  among  the 
people,  being  generally  of  low  extraction.  They 
have  many  different  orders  among  them,  which  are 
distinguished  by  badges,  color  of  habit,  or  the  fash- 
ions of  their  caps.  They  are  all  obliged  to  celibacy 
while  they  continue  in  orders,  and  that  is  no  longer 
than  they  please.  But  while  they  continue  in  orders, 
and  should  chance  to  be  convicted  of  fornication, 
they  must  expiate  their  crimes  with  their  lives ; 
except  their  high-priest,  who  is  called  Chiam,  and  he 
always  keeps  near  the  Emperor's  person,  and  is  in 
very  great  repute ;  he  has  the  liberty  to  marry,  be- 
cause the  high-priesthood  must  always  continue  in 
one  family,  as  Aaron's  did  for  a  long  while,  but  not 
half  so  long  as  it  has  in  his  family,  who  has  kept  up 
the  custom  above  a  thousand  years  successively, 
without  the  intrusion  of  interlopers.  There  are  no 
persons  of  figure  that  care  to  have  their  children 
consecrated  to  serve  at  the  altar,  so  that  the  priests 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         53 

who  can  have  no  issue  of  their  own,  are  obliged  to 
buy  novices  of  such  mean  persons  as  necessity  forces 
to  sell  their  children ;  and  their  study  being  in  the 
large  legends  of  their  divinity,  and  not  having  the 
benefit  of  conversation  with  men  of  letters  or  pol- 
ity, they  are  generally  ignorant  of  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  which  makes  them  contemptible  among  so 
polite  a  people  as  the  ingenious  and  conversable 
Chinese  laity  are.  There  preachers  take  some  ap- 
ophthegms out  of  those  great  men's  writings,  for 
texts  to  comment  and  expatiate  on.*  They  live  very 
abstemiously,  and  rise  early  before  day  to  pray. 
Every  temple  has  a  cloister  or  convent  annexed  to  it, 
and  has  a  certain  stipend  allowed  by  the  emperor  to 
support  the  priests  and  novices,  but  they  get  much 
more  by  letting  lodgings  to  travellers,  who  generally 
lodge  in  their  cells,  than  the  emperor's  allowance ; 
besides,  they  have  a  genteel  way  of  begging  from 
strangers,  by  bringing  tea  and  sweetmeats  to  regale 
them." 

Of  the  Brahmins  of  the  Hindoos,  this  author  com- 
municates the  following  facts :  "  Among  the  bram- 
liun  castes,  there  are  several  degrees  or  orders.  That 
called  Kooleenu  is  one  indicating  the  highest  merit. 
None  could  enter  this  order  unless  he  was  distin- 
guished by  meekness,  learning,  good  report,  etc.  At 
the  present  time,  the  highest  seat  of  honor  is  yielded 
to  a  Kooleenu  on  all  occasions,  yet  the  supposed 
superiority  of  this  order  in  natural  or  acquired  tal- 

*  The  author  refers  to  the  writings  of  Confucius  and  Tansine, 
eminent  hierophants  and  moral  philosophers  of  the  ancient  Chi- 
nese. 

5* 


54  THE   HEATIIEN  RELIGION 

ents,  nowhere  exists.  The  name  of  the  order,  how- 
ever, still  gives  the  bramhuns  belonging  to  it,  great 
superiority  among  the  lower  orders  of  this  caste. 
Formerly  the  bramhuns  were  employed  in  austere  de- 
votion and  abstinence,  their  business  being  the  wor- 
ship of  the  gods  —  then  they  were  supported  by 
kings  and  princes,  and  it  seems  did  not  employ  then- 
hands  in  worldly  labor.  At  the  present  time  only  a 
few  are  supported  in  this  way,  most  of  them  being 
obliged  to  enter  into  all  kinds  of  worldly  employ- 
ment for  support;  many  of  them  are  beggars,  some 
steal,"  etc. 


CHAPTER    II. 


IDOLS. 


In  the  earliest  ages  of  heathenism,  artificial  idols 
did  not  exist,  and  for  the  plain  reason  that  no  one 
possessed  sufficient  skill  or  means  to  make  them. 
Larcher,  in  a  note  on  Herodotus,  having  stated  that 
the  most  ancient  nations  were  not  worshippers  of 
images,  adds:  "  Lucian  tells  us  that  the  ancient 
Egyptians  had  no  statues  in  the  temples.  Accord- 
ing to  Eusebius,  the  Greeks  were  not  worshippers  of 
images  before  the  time  of  Cecrops,  who  first  of  all 
erected  statues  to  Minerva.  And  Plutarch  tells  us 
that  Numa  forbade  the  Romans  to  represent  the 
deity  under  the  form  of  a  man  or  an  animal ;  and 
for  seventy  years  this  people  had  not  in  their  temples 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         55 

any  statue  or  painting  of  the  deity."  According  to 
the  Father  of  History,  the  ancient  Persians  had  no 
images  of  the  gods,  and  from  Caesar  it  appears  that 
the  Germans  had  but  few.  Tacitus,  speaking  of  the 
latter,  says :  "  Their  deities  were  not  immured  in 
temples,  nor  represented  under  any  kind  of  resem- 
blance to  the  human  form.  To  do  either,  were,  in 
their  opinion,  to  derogate  from  the  majesty  of  supe- 
rior beings."* 

Idolatry,  however,  is  of  an  ancient  date.  At  first, 
many  of  the  objects  and  phenomena  of  nature,  en- 
dowed with  striking  properties,  or  distinguished  for 
their  remarkable  appearances,  were  regarded  as  the 
media  of  preternatural  influence  or  communication, 
and  treated  with  religious  veneration.  A  belief  pre- 
vailed extensively  among  the  ancients  that  a  god 
now  and  then  sent  down  his  image  from  heaven  to 
mankind.  To  this  category  of  idols  belonged  the 
Ccetylia  or  meteoric  stones,  supposed  to  have  fallen 
from  the  abode  of  the  celestial  powers,  and  therefore 
called  heaven-stones.  Brontia,  or  thunder-bolts,  were 
also  iconic  representatives  of  the  deities,  sent  to 
their  credulous  votaries.  Mone  affirms  that  the 
ancient  Germans  had  not  only  their  thunder-bolts, 
but  likewise  their  rainboiv  dishes  !  Antiquity  could 
boast  of  many  holy  stones ;  as,  the  one  at  Pessinus, 
in  Galatia,  sacred  to  Cybele ;  the  one  of  the  sun- 
god  Heliogabalus,  in  Syria ;  and  the  one  at  the  tem- 
ple of  Delphi. 

The  principal  idol  of  the  ancient  Arabs,  as  it  ap- 

*  Murphy. 


56  THE  HEATHEN  EELIGION 

pears  from  Jablonski's  Pantheon  JEgypiiorum,  was 
an  irregular  square  black  stone,  four  feet  high  and 
two  feet  broad,  denominated  Dysares.  The  Hin- 
doos, we  are  informed  by  Tavernier,  commonly  have 
in  their  pagodas  a  round  stone,  brought  from  the 
Ganges,  which  they  worship  as  a  god.  They  also 
pay  homage  to  an  idol  called  Nahadeo,  which  is  a 
conic  pillar  of  stone.  In  one  of  their  temples  visited 
by  Pietro  della  Valle,  the  idols  were  two  stones 
somewhat  long,  like  the  ancient  termini  or  landmarks, 
and  painted.  "  All  these  idols,"  writes  this  author, 
"  are  served,  adored,  perfumed,  offered  to,  and  washed 
every  day,  as  for  pleasure  by  the  bramins,  who  assist 
at  this  service  with  much  diligence."  *  Graven  im- 
ages —  zoano7i,  were  the  oldest  kind  of  deistic  repre- 
sentations among  the  Teutonic  people.  Among  the 
Germans,  Tacitus  assures  us,  the  figures  of  savage 
animals  were  employed  as  religious  symbols.  Rude 
as  were  some  of  the  aborigines  of  America,  histo- 
rians inform  us  that  they  had  both  painted  and 
graven  or  sculptured  images  of  their  gods.  Like 
the  Germans  and  other  polytheistic  nations,  "  The 
Canadian  Indians,"  says  Charlevoix,  "  carry  the 
symbolic  figures  of  their  gods,  called  Manitou,  with 
them  to  battle,  and  would  as  soon  forget  their  arms 
as  their  idols."  f  Judging  from  the  ill-formed,  un- 
couth idols  of  existing  barbaric  people ;  as,  the 
New-Zealanders,   the   Kamschadales,   the   Bouraits, 


*  Priestley's   Comparison   of  the  Institutions   of  Moses  with 
those  of  the  Hindoos,  etc. 
f  Murphy  on  Tacitus. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         57 

etc.,  it  is  likely  that  the  earliest  iconic  productions 
of  art  were  a  pale,  or  block  of  wood  with  a  human 
head  and  face  carved  on  it ;  and  a  form  deemed  god- 
like, moulded  in  clay,  and  hardened  in  the  fire  or  the 
sun,  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  trial  at 
statuary.  Some  awkward  endeavors  to  paint  de- 
istic  symbols  or  likenesses,  may  have  constituted  a 
synchronic  exercise  of  skill,  or  even  preceded  these 
incipient  efforts  of  the  plastic  arts.  Cast  and  sculp- 
tured representations  of  the  gods,  required  a  ma- 
turer  knowledge  and  a  longer  practice  before  the 
graves  and  the  temples  of  the  deities  could  be  peo- 
pled with  their  varied  and  more  perfect  forms  by  the 
theopoioi  —  god-makers,  as  the  imago-artists  have 
sometimes  been  denominated.  In  the  earlier  stages 
of  religious  development,  many  idols  were  not,  strictly 
speaking,  images,  but  mementos  or  insignia  of  a  di- 
vine presence  or  influence  in  nature ;  and  even  at  a 
later  period,  they  were  symbols  of  some  great  truths 
in  moral  and  physical  science,  rather  than  facsimiles 
of  some  ill  or  well  defined  divine  originals :  facts, 
which  cannot  but  exercise  a  beneficial  influence  on 
our  mythological  researches. 

A  description  of  some  of  the  Hindoo  images  of 
the  gods  by  Doctor  Ward,  will  give  us  some  idea 
of  ftie  iconology  of  those  once  renowned  people. 
Brahma,  Vichnou,  and  Siva,  constitute  the  Hindoo 
trinity,  and  to  their  statues  I  shall  first  call  the  read- 
er's attention.  "  Brumha,"  writes  this  author,  "  may 
be  properly  noticed  first,  as  he  is  called  the  creator 
and  the  grandfather  of  gods  and  men ;  in  the  latter 
designation,  he  resembles  Jupiter,  in  the  lascivious- 
ness  of  his  conduct,  having  betrayed  a  criminal  pas- 


58  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

sion  towards  his  own  daughter.*     Brumha's  image  is 
never  worshipped,  nor  even  made ;  but    the  Chundu 
describes  it  as  that  of  a  red  man  with  four  faces. 
He  is  red,  as  a  mark  of  his  being  full  of  the  ruju 
goonu :  he  has  four  faces,  to  remind  the  worshippers 
that  the  vedas  proceeded  from  his  four  mouths.     In 
one  hand  he  has  a  string  of  beads,  to  show  that  his 
power  as  creator  was  derived  from  his  devotion  :  the 
pan    of    water   in   his    left   hand,    denotes   that   all 
things  sprang  from  water.     This  deity,  thus  preemi- 
nent, is  yet  entirely  destitute   of  a  temple  and  wor- 
shippers.    The  image  of  Vishnoo  is  that  of  a  black 
man,  with  four  arms,  sitting  on  Gurooru,  a  creature 
half  bird,   half  man,  and  holding  in  his  hands  the 
sacred  shell,  the  chuckru,  the  lotus,  and  a  club.     His 
color,  black,  is  that  of  the  destroyer;  which  is  in- 
tended to  show  that  Shinu  and  he  are  one ;  f  he  has 
four  hands,  as  the  representative  of  the  male  and 
female   powers :    the    shell,   blown    on    days    of  re- 
joicing, implies  that  Vishnoo  is  a  friendly  deity :  the 
chuckru  is  to  teach  that  he  is  wise  to  protect ;  the 
lotus  to  remind  the  worshipper  of  the  nature  of  final 
emancipation ;  that,  as  the  flower  is  raised  from  the 
muddy  soil,  and  after  rising  by  degrees  from  immer- 
sion in  the  waters,  expands  itself  above  the  surface, 
to  the  admiration  of  all,  so  man  is  emancipated  from 
the  chains  of  human  birth ;  the  club  shows  that  he 

*  This  criminal  passion  of  Brahma  for  his  own  daughter,  is 
sheer  nonsense,  as  it  is  a  mere  figurative  expression,  and  signifies 
simply  the  creative  energies  of  heaven  and  earth  in  harmonious 
union.  —  G. 

f  Vichnou  and  Siva  are  as  much  one  as  Jesus  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  no  more.  —  G. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         59 

chastises  the  wicked.  Gurooru  is  a  portion  of 
Shivu ;  his  body  represents  the  veda.  Vishnoo  is 
distinguished,  as  being  the  source  of  most  of  the 
Hindoo  incarnations;  and  he  commands  the  worship 
of  the  greatest  division  of  the  Hindoo  population. 
There  are  no  temples  nor  festivals  in  honor  of  Vish- 
noo. He  is  called  the  Preserver;  but  the  actions 
ascribed  to  him  under  this  character,  are  referred  to 
other  forms  and  names.  The  Shalgramu,  a  stone, 
is  a  form  of  Vishnoo.  During  four  months  of  the 
year,  all  the  forms  of  this  god  are  laid  to  sleep. 
Siva,  or  Shivu,  is  seen  with  his  Trisula,  or  trident, 
in  one  hand ;  and  in  another  the  Pasha,  which  is 
a  rope  for  binding  and  strangling  incorrigible  offend- 
ers ;  his  two  foremost  hands,  right  and  left,  are  in  a 
position  very  common  to  several  deities ;  they  are 
said  to  indicate  an  invitation  to  ask,  and  a  promise 
to  grant  or  protect.  His  third  eye,  pointing  up  and 
down,  is  seen  in  his  forehead  —  his  three  eyes,  prob- 
ably, denoting  his  view  of  the  three  divisions  of 
time,  past,  present,  and  future.  Serpents,  emblems 
of  immortality,  form  his  ear-rings.  His  pendant 
collar  is  composed  of  human  heads,  and  marks  the 
extinction  and  succession  of  generations  of  mankind 
by  time.* 

"  The  Indian  Pluto  — Yumu,  is  a  dark  green  man, 
clothed  in  red,  with  inflamed  eyes ;  he  sits  upon  a 
buffalo ;  has  a  crown  on  his  head,  and  holds  in  his 
right  hand  a  club  with  which  he  drives  out  the  soul 


*  The  Hindoo  triad  sit  with  their  legs  crossed  under  them, 
■while  their  headgear  is  composed  of  a  massive  steeple-shaped 
crown,  containing  several  convolvular  stories.  —  G. 


60  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

from  the  body,  and  punishes  the  wicked.  This  is 
the  form  of  terror,  as  a  king  of  the  souls  of  the 
dead ;  but  he  is  also  worshipped  in  a  form  less  ter- 
rific, which  he  is  said  to  assume  when  he  passes  a 
sentence  of  happiness  on  the  meritorious.  Beside 
this  annual  festival,  he  is  worshipped  on  other  occa- 
sions, and  receives  the  homage  of  the  Hindoos  in 
their  daily  ablutions.  There  are  several  remarkable 
coincidences  between  Yumu  and  Pluto.  Lukshmee, 
the  goddess  of  fortune,  is  the  wife  of  Vishnoo :  she 
is  said  to  have  been  produced  at  the  churning  of 
the  sea,  as  Venus  was  said  to  be  born  of  the  froth 
of  the  sea :  at  her  birth,  all  the  gods  were  enamored 
with  her.  She  is  painted  yellow,  with  a  water-lily 
in  her  right  hand ;  in  which  form  she  is  worshipped 
frequently  by  Hindoo  women ;  but  no  bloody  sacri- 
fices are  offered  to  her.  The  goddess  of  fecundity  — 
Shusht'hee,  is  honored  with  six  annual  festivals, 
celebrated  chiefly  by  females.  Her  image  is  that  of 
a  yellow  woman,  sitting  on  a  cat,  and  nursing  a 
child ;  though,  in  general,  a  rough  stone,  painted  on 
the  top,  and  placed  under  a  tree,  is  the  object  of 
worship,"  etc. 

"  In  many  instances,"  writes  the  author  just  quoted, 
"  there  is  a  similarity  in  the  exterior  forms  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Fo,  and  that  of  the  Romish  church.  Upon 
the  altars  of  the  Chinese  temples  were  placed  be- 
hind a  screen  an  image  of  Shin-moo,  or  the  holy 
mother,  sitting  with  a  child  in  her  arms,  in  an  alcove, 
with  rays  of  glory  round  her  head,  and  tapers  con- 
stantly burning  before  her."  Finally,  this  writer  thus 
remarks  on  the  idols  of  the  Bouraites,  Who  are  of 
Mongol  origin,  and  reside  in  the  western  part  of  Si- 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.  61 

beria  and  on  the  frontiers  of  China,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Irkutzk :  "  The  religion  of  the  Bouraits  is  a 
mixture  of  Lamaism  and  Shamaism.  In  their  huts 
they  have  wooden  idols,  naked  or  clothed  :  others 
are  of  felt,  tin,  or  lamb's  skin  ;  and  others  again  rude 
daubings  with  soot  by  the  Shamans,  who  give  them 
arbitrarv  names.  The  women  are  not  allowed  to 
approach,  or  to  pass  before  them.  The  Bourait, 
when  he  goes  out,  or  returns  to  his  hut,  bows  to  his 
idols,  and  this  is  almost  the  only  dailv  mark  of  re- 
spect  that  he  pays  them.  He  annually  celebrates 
two  festivals  in  honor  of  them,  and  at  these,  men 
only  have  a  right  to  be  present/'  With  these  over- 
wrought, sometimes  una?sthetic,  or  even  puerile 
symbolical  forms  of  the  iconic  art,  I  shall  now  com- 
pare a  few  specimens  of  the  sacred  plastic  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  —  the  fairer  and  nobler  ideal 
productions  of  a  more  correct  and  elegant  artistic 
taste.  Jupiter,  the  king  and  father  of  gods  and  men, 
is  generally  represented  as  a  brawny  divinity,  with 
a  stern  countenance,  and  a  copious  beard,  sitting  up- 
on a  throne  of  ivory  and  gold,  under  a  rich  canopy, 
holding  thunderbolts  in  his  right  hand,  just  ready  to 
be  hurled  at  the  rebellious  giants  at  his  feet,  and 
grasping  with  his  left  a  sceptre  made  of  cypress  — 
the  symbol  of  the  eternity  of  his  empire,  because 
that  wood  is  free  from  corruption.  An  eagle  with 
expanded  wings,  is  perched  on  the  top  of  this  type 
of  regal  power,  or  it  stands  at  the  feet  of  the  tJiun- 
derer.  The  god  wears  golden  shoes,  and  an  em- 
broidered cloak,  adorned  with  various  flowers  and 
figures  of  animals,  the  emblems  of  the  diversified 
and  multitudinous  forms  of   creation.     The  image 

6 


62  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

of  Juno,  the  queen  of  the  gods,  and  sister  and  wife 
of  Jupiter,  was  made  of  ivory  and  gold.  In  one 
hand  the  fair  goddess  holds  a  pomegranate,  and  in 
the  other  a  golden  sceptre,  upon  which  a  cuckoo  is 
perching.  A  diadem  decorates  her  head,  while  a 
throne  is  her  chair  of  state.  Peacocks,  recommended 
by  their  gorgeous  plumage,  sit  near  her,  and  Iris  dis- 
plays around  her  the  brilliant  colors  of  the  rainbow. 
The  statues  of  Apollo  portray  the  god  of  the  .fine 
arts  and  of  all  elegant  accomplishments,  as  a  tall, 
beardless  youth,  with  long  hair,  a  graceful  person, 
and  a  comely  countenance.  His  faultless  head  is 
generally  surrounded  with  beams  of  light,  and  en- 
circled with  a  laurel  wreath.  His  person  is  robed 
in  resplendent  garments  embroidered  with  gold, 
while  he  holds  a  bow  and  arrows  in  one  hand,  and 
a  harp  in  the  other.  His  symbolical  drapery  varies 
a  little  in  some  instances,  and  a  shield  and  the 
graces  enter  into  the  iconic  garniture  of  the  god  of 
the  silver-bow.  The  image  of  the  goddess  Venus,  is 
the  last  example  which  I  shall  adduce  here  in  eluci- 
dation of  the  national  peculiarities'  in  the  iconic  art 
among  the  heathen.  "  Turn  your  eyes  now  to  a 
sweet  object,"  says  Tooke,  "  and  view  that  goddess 
in  whose  countenance  the  graces  sit  playing,  and  dis- 
cover all  her  charms.  You  see  a  pleasantness,  a 
mirth,  and  joy  in  every  part  of  her  face*  Observe 
with  what  becoming  pride  she  holds  up  her  head 
and  views  herself,  where  she  finds  nothing  but  joys 
and  soft  delights.  She  is  clothed  with  a  purple 
mantle  glittering  with  diamonds.  By  her  side  stand 
two  Cupids,  and  round  her  are  three  Graces,  and 
behind  her  follows  the  lovelv,  beautiful  Adonis,  who 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         63 

holds  up  the  goddess'  train.  The  chariot  in  which 
she  rides  is  made  of  ivory,  finely  carved,  and  beauti- 
fully painted  and  gilded.  It  is  drawn  by  swans  and 
doves,  or  swallows,  as  Venus  directs  when  she 
pleases  to  ride.  You  will  see  her  sometimes  painted 
like  a  young  virgin  rising  from  the  sea,  and  riding  in 
a  shell ;  at  other  times  like  a  woman  holding  the 
shell  in  her  hand,  her  head  being  crowned  with  roses. 
Sometimes  her  picture  has  a  silver  looking-glass  in 
one  hand,  and  on  the  feet  are  golden  sandals  and 
buckles.  In  the  pictures  of  the  Sicyonians,  she 
holds  a  poppy  in  one  hand,  and  an  apple  in  the  other, 
etc." 

The  colors  of  the  images  of  the  gods  were  usually 
of  symbolical  import,  and  though  symbology  prop- 
erly belongs  to  the  second  part  of  this  work,  they 
seem  to  require  a  brief  notice  in  this  place,  as  they 
are  a  constituent  element  of  iconology.  According 
to  Winckelmann,  "  On  Allegory,"  Bacchus  was  clad 
in  a  red  or  scarlet  robe,  the  emblem  of  wine,  or  as 
some  suppose,  of  the  victory  which  the  jolly  god 
achieved  over  mankind  when  he  introduced  among 
them  many  of  the  arts  and  comforts  of  life.  Pan, 
Priapus,  the  Satyrs,  etc.,  were  likewise  painted  red, 
and  Plutarch  assures  us  that  red  was  originally  the 
prevailing  color  of  the  idols.  Osiris  —  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  solar  year  of  the  Egyptians  —  was  rep- 
resented in  a  painting  of  vast  dimensions,  with  a 
blue  face,  and  blue  arms  and  feet,  and  resting  on  a 
black  ground :  symbolical  of  the  sun  in  its  subterres- 
trial  orbit.  Black  and  blue  also  distinguished  the 
portrait  of  the  planetary  god  Saturn,  and  were  typi- 
cal of  the  sun  in  Capricorn,  or  its  southern  declension 


64  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

to  the  zone  of  sable  Ethiopia.  As  the  king  of  the 
lower  regions,  Serapis  was  painted  black  among  the 
Egyptians,  while  the  image  of  Jupiter  among  the 
same  people,  was  ash-grey  or  scarlet ;  that  of  Mars  a 
red  stone,  and  Venus's  dyed  with  the  same  color; 
that  of  Apollo  shown  in  the  lustrous  hue  of  gold,  and 
Mercury's  was  covered  with  the  modest  blue,  etc. 
The  natural  color  of  the  stones  of  which  the  images 
of  the  gods  were  formed,  were  often  selected  on  ac- 
count of  their  allegorical  significance.  Thus  that 
indefatigable  traveller,  Pausanias,  informs  us  that  the 
river-gods  of  the  ancients  were  made  altogether  of 
white  marble,  and  that  only  for  the  statue  of  the 
Nile,  a  black  stone  was  chosen  to  denote  the  Ethi- 
opic  origin  of  the  fluviatile  divinity :  a  Nilic  bust 
in  the  Napoleon-museum  confirms  this  statement. 
Agreeably  to  their  cosmogony,  the  Hindoos  selected 
the  dark-blue  color  to  typify  water  as  the  primordial 
element  of  creation.  Hence  this  color  also  desig- 
nated Narajan,  the  mover  of  the  primitive  waters. 
According  to  Jones'  Dissertations  relating1  to  Asia,  a 
handsome  image  of  this  god  wrought  in  blue  mar- 
ble, might  be  seen  at  Catmandu,  the  principal  city 
of  Nepal,  in  a  reclining  attitude,  and  in  the  act  of 
swimming.  On  the  first  of  January,  the  Roman 
consul,  clothed  in  a  white  toga,  and  mounted  upon 
a  white  horse,  rode  up  to  the  Capitol:  it  was  in 
honor  of  Jupiter,  who  —  as  we  learn  from  Pherecy- 
des,  was  adored  there  as  the  sun-god  of  the  Romans, 
as  also  in  commemoration  of  the  victory  of  that 
deity  over  the  giants,  when  the  many-eyed  and 
many-handed  Briareus — winter,  as  the  mischievous 
leader  of  the  rebellious  host,  was  himself  most  sig- 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         65 

nally  defeated.  This  consular  ceremony  presented 
the  living  image  of  the  solar  deity,  imbued  with  the 
hue  of  light.  Finally,  Ceres  was  the  black  or  the 
refulgent  goddess,  accordingly  as  she  spent  her  time 
in  the  hadean  or  supernal  regions ;  and  Vesta,  as 
the  earth,  was  green,  while  in  her  capacity  of  fire- 
goddess,  the  color  of  flame  denned  and  illustrated 
her  divinity. 


SECTION     V. 

THE    CLASSIFICATION  AND  RELATIVE  ANTIQUITY  OF  THE 

GODS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    CLASSIFICATION    OF   THE    GODS. 

When  we  reflect  that  in  the  earlier  periods  of 
polytheism,  the  deities  of  antiquity  amounted  to  an 
innumerable  multitude  ;  that,  according  to  the  ample 
creed  of  the  heathen,  all  the  relations  and  actions  of 
mankind  as  well  as  all  the  elements,  the  phenomena, 
and  the  energies  of  the  universe,  had  their  presiding 
divinities;  and  that  Greece  —  in  the  exuberance  of 
a  lively  imagination,  or  stimulated  by  a  religious 
want  still  unsupplied,  after  having  ransacked  all 
nature  for  a  new  god  without  finding  one,  yet  appre- 
hensive or  desirous  that  one  might  still  exist  of 
whom  they  were  ignorant,  and  who  would  probably 
avenge  the  neglect  with  which  he  was  treated,  or  be 
willing  to  confer  a  blessing  upon  them  heretofore 
unfelt  and  unknown,  resolved  to  obviate  so  fatal  a 
result,  or  to  procure  so  great  a  good,  and  erected  an 
altar  to  the  unknown  god,  we  have  reason  to  despair 

(66) 


THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,  ETC.  67 

of  meeting  with  any  thing  like  complete  success  in 
our  efforts  to  arrange  the  numerous  aspirants  to  our 
attention,  according  to  their  supposed  rank  and  real 
merits.* 

From  the  graduated  position  which  the  deities 
occupied  in  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  it  appears  that 
they  were  divided  into  six  classes :  the  celestial,  the 
terrestrial,  the  aquatic,  the  infernal,  the  minutii,  or 
sememes,  together  with  the  miscellanei,  and  the  ad- 
scriptitii  with  the  indigetes.-f  The  celestial  deities 
possessed  extraordinary  authority,  and  their  fame  ex- 
celled that  of  all  the  rest.  As  their  votaries  believed 
them  to  be  eminently  employed  in  the  government 
of  the  world,  the  worship  which  they  bestowed  upon 
them,  was  of  the  highest  order.  Jupiter,  Apollo, 
Mercury,  Bacchus,  and  Mars ;  Juno,  Minerva,  Venus, 
Latona,  and  Aurora,  are  the  significant  names  of 
these  illustrious  divinities.  Superior  in  number,  but 
inferior  in  rank  and  influence,  to  the  preceding  mem- 
bers of  a  common  divine  family,  are  the  terrestrial 

*  My  remarks  in  the  text,  on  the  unknown  god,  are  based  on 
the  generally  received  interpretations  of  the  Scripture  passage  in 
which  this  god  is  noticed,  but  it  is  pretty  clear  to  me,  and  the 
Apostle  Paul  confirms  my  convictions  in  the  view  which  he  takes 
of  the  subject,  asserting  the  unknown  god  to  be  the  God  that 
made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein,  etc.,  that  the  Greeks  under- 
stood by  this  deity  the  absolutely  Supreme  Being,  who,  accord- 
ing to  their  altar-inscription,  they  modestly  declare  to  be  the 
unknown  —  the  incomprehensible !  Who  among  mortals,  Chris- 
tian or  pagan,  does  or  can  know  him  ?  For  the  Christians  even 
see  but  darkly,  and  as  it  were  through  a  glass. 

f  The  meaning  of  semones  is  quasi  semi-homines ;  and  the  term 
indigetes  is  derived  from  inde  and  geniti  —  gods  who  are  born  in 
the  same  place  where  they  are  worshipped ;  local  deities. 


68  THE   HEATHEN  RELIGION 

gods  and  goddesses,  who  are  separated  into  two 
divisions,  the  one  presiding  over  fields  and  cities,  the 
other  inhabiting  the  uncultivated  country  and  the 
woods.  The  former  is  more  especially  distinguished 
by  the  cognomen  terrestrial,  while  the  epithet  rural, 
defines  the  latter.  That  comprises  Saturn,  Janus, 
Vulcan,  iEolus,  Momus,  Vesta,  Cybele,  Ceres,  the 
Muses,  and  Themis ;  this,  in  the  male  and  female 
lines  as  laid  down  in  the  theogonic  tables,  Pan,  Sil- 
vanus,  Silenus,  the  Satyrs,  the  Fauns,  Priapus,  Aris- 
taeus,  Terminus,  Pales,  Flora,  Feronia,  Pomona, 
the  Nymphs,  etc.  Among  the  aquatic  deities,. 
Oceanus,  Neptune,  and  Triton,  the  Sirens,  Scylla, 
and  Charybdis,  deserve  our  attention,  though  they 
no  longer  claim  our  homage.  The  first  in  this  brief 
list,  was  regarded  in  the  primitive  ages  of  heathen- 
ism, as  the  originator  of  all  things,  and  therefore 
named  the  father,  not  only  of  all  the  seas  and  rivers, 
together  with  their  finny  inhabitants,  but  of  the  very 
gods  themselves.  To  the  care  of  the  second,  the 
dominion  of  the  sea,  and  the  safety  of  ships,  as  well 
as  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  nautical  world,  were 
intrusted.  Nor  did  rivers  and  fountains  escape  the 
vigilance  and  the  guardianship  of  his  three-tined 
sceptre.  This  god  had  a  son  —  the  above-named 
Triton,  who  seems  to  have  inherited  all  the  great 
qualities  for  which  his  parent  has  been  so  justly  cele- 
brated, and  in  every  way  to  have  been  worthy  of 
him.  As  the  trumpeter  of  his  father,  he  raised  or 
calmed  at  pleasure,  the  boisterous  billows  of  the 
deep.  Among  the  rest  of  this  maritime  race,  the 
Sirens,  ill-formed  as  they  were,  prided  themselves  on 
account  of  their  charms,  to  which  they  attracted  the 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         69 

attention  of  unwary  seafarers,  through  the  enraptur- 
ing strains  of  their  music.  With  their  meretricious 
songs,  especially,  they  enticed  the  ambitious,  the 
voluptuous,  or  the  covetous,  to  their  destruction  :  be- 
ware of  the  allurements  of  sin,  is  the  simple  but 
expressive  import  of  this  myth !  The  character  of 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,  is  sufficiently  illustrated  in 
the  fatal  rock  and  world-renowned  whirlpool,  which 
have  transmitted  the  memory  of  their  terrific  names 
and  malignant  deeds  to  posterity ;  and  the  lesson 
which  they  inculcate,  is  that  lust  and  intemperate 
habits  render  our  voyage  through  this  world  ex- 
tremely perilous. 

The  plan  of  this  work  requires  that  a  notice  of  the 
infernal  gods,  whose  rank  in  the  pantheon  assigns  to 
them  a  place  here,  should  be  reserved  for  a  future 
occasion,  when  we  shall  speak  of  judgment  to  come. 
The  subordinate  deities,  among  whom  are  included 
the  Penates,  the  Lares,  the  Genii,  and  those  friendly 
and  sociable  divinities  who  exercise  a  benignant 
supervision  over  nuptials  and  infants,  therefore  await 
our  description. 

The  Penates  were  inferior  deities  among  the 
Romans,  who  presided  over  various  interests  of  the 
commonwealth.  They  bore  the  appellation  of  Pe- 
nates, because  they  were  generally  placed  in  pentis- 
sima  aedhtm  parte  —  in  the  innermost  part  of  the 
houses.  The  place  where  they  stood  was  afterwards 
called  Penetralia,  and  they  themselves  received  the 
name  of  Penetrales.*  According  to  the  best  authori- 
ties, the  Penatean  divinities  were  divided  into  three 

*  Cicero  De  Natura  Deorum,  asserts  that  the  name  imports 
every  thing  that  man  eats. 


70  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

orders,  the  first  having  the  supervision  of  provinces 
and  kingdoms ;  the  second,  of  cities,  and  the  third, 
of  houses  and  families.  These  comprise  successively 
the  Penates  properly  so  called;  the  gods  of  the  coun- 
try, or  the  "  great  gods ; "  and  the  small  gods.  Macro- 
bius,  in  his  Saturnalia,  makes  the  Penates  synony- 
mous with  Jupiter,  Juno,  Minerva,  and  Vesta,  and 
defines  them  as  the  gods  to  whom  we  owe  our  lives 
and  all  our  faculties ;  but  Macrobius  flourished  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  fourth  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and  his  tes- 
timony on  this  subject  can  therefore  be  received  as 
valid,  only  when  it  coincides  *  with  older  authors, 
whose  qualifications  to  decide  a  question  of  this 
kind,  no  one  will  presume  to  doubt.  Virgil  tells  us, 
in  the  second  book  of  the  iEneid,  that  iEneas,  upon 
the  advice  of  Hector,  carried  with  him  from  Troy, 
when  he  went  forth  from  that  devoted  city  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  other  climes  and  on  more  hospitable 
shores,  the  Penates  and  the  potent  Vesta  with  her  per- 
petual fire.  This  passage  alone  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  Vesta  and  the  Penates  are  distinct  divinities. 
Besides,  the  statues  of  the  Penates  were  generally 
made  of  wax,  ivory,  silver,  or  earth,  according  to  the 
affluence  or  the  poverty  of  the  worshipper,  and  the 
only  offering  which  they  received  were  wine,  incense, 
and  fruit,  except  on  rare  occasions,  when  lambs,  sheep, 
goats,  etc.,  were  immolated  on  their  altars :  facts, 
which  clearly  assign  to  them  relations  and  functions 
distinct  from  those  of  Jupiter  and  his  compeers.* 
In  the  first  ages   of  idolatry,  the  gods  may  have 

*  "  Timffius,  and  from  him  Dionysius  says,"  writes  Tooke,  "  that 
these  Penates  had  no  proper  shape  or  figure ;  but  were  wooden 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         71 

been  often  confounded,  or  at  least  indistinctly  classi- 
fied, and  then  a  Jupiter,  a  Minerva,  etc.,  and  a 
Pen  ate,  may  have  passed  for  the  same  species  of 
divinity ;  but  wken  iconology  attained  the  rank  and 
the  precision  of  a  science,  and  every  part  of  it  be- 
came clothed  with  hieroglyphical  significance,  each 
deity  that  deserved  the  name,  had  his  separate  niche 
and  ritual  service,  and  from  that  time  metaphor  and 
poetic  license  alone  could  now  and  then  violate  the 
established  system.  It  was  the  business  of  the 
Lares,  who  were  the  twin  sons  of  Mercury  and  the 
nymph  Lara,  to  keep  in  safety  the  houses  and  streets 
of  the  citizens,  and  thus  in  some  measure,  to  share 
the  domestic  functions  of  those  Penates  who  were 
emphatically  household  gods.  Of  the  Genii,  we 
may  observe  that  they  were  the  guardians,  overseers, 
and  safe-keepers  of  men,  from  their  cradles  to  their 
graves  :  the  Junones  stood  in  the  same  tutelar  relation 
to  women.  They  likewise  carried  their  prayers  to 
the  gods,  and  made  intercession  in  their  behalf:  they 
were  the  symbols  of  the  generative  powers  in  na- 
ture. The  Greeks  called  the  Genii  demons.  Every 
person  had  a  good  and  an  evil  genius  or  demon 
allotted  to  him.  The  good  genius  that  is  given  to 
every  one  at  his  birth,  constantly  incites  him  to  the 
practice  of  virtue  and  piety ;  whereas  the  bad  one 
prompts  him  to  all  manner  of  vice  and  wickedness. 
The  nuptial  deities  comprised  some  of  the  most 
eminent,  as  well  as  a  number  of  the  inferior  divini- 


or  brazen  rods,  shaped  somewhat  like  trumpets.  But  it  is  also 
thought  by  others,  that  they  had  the  shape  of  young  men  -with 
spears,  which  they  held  apart  from  another." 


72  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

ties,  Jupiter  perfectus  or  adidtus,  Juno  perfecta  or 
adidta,  Venus,  Suada,  and  Diana,  were  so  absolutely 
necessary  to  all  marriages,  that  none  could  lawfully 
be  solemnized  without  them.  Beside  these,  several 
inferior  gods  and  goddesses  were  worshipped  at  all 
nuptial  ceremonies.  Jugatinus  joined  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  together  in  the  yoke  of  matrimony ; 
Domiducus  conducted  the  former  into  the  house  of 
the  latter;  Viriplaca  reconciled  husbands  to  their 
wives ;  Manturna  was  invoked  that  the  wife  might 
never  leave  her  husband,  but  in  all  the  conditions  of 
life  abide  with  him,  etc.  Such  was  the  nature  of 
their  functions,  which  made  it  their  duty  to  see  that 
every  thing  which  appertained  to  married  life  was 
managed  with  a  strict  regard  to  propriety  and  equal 
justice.  Their  kinsmen  and  partial  allies,  who  were 
charged  with  the  supervision  of  infants  —  a  task 
which  included  also  children  of  riper  years  —  inter- 
ested themselves  in  various  ways,  and  it  may  be 
presumed,  at  a  great  cost  of  time  and  labor,  in  the 
welfare  of  the  rising  generation,  from  the  perilous 
moments  of  their  birth  to  the  blithe  and  buoyant  age 
of  juvenility.  Janus,  Opis,  Nascio,  Cunia,  Levana, 
beside  numerous  others,  chiefly  female  divinities, 
figured  in  this  pleasing  but  responsible  vocation.  In 
regard  to  the  Dii  Indigetes  and  Adscriptitii  or  the 
demi-gods  and  heroes ;  as,  Hercules,  Jason,  Theseus, 
Castor  and  Pollux,  Perseus,  ^Esculapius,  Prometheus, 
Atlas,  Orpheus,  in  addition  to  a  long  list  of  congenial 
names  and  personages,  who  have  played  a  prominent 
part  upon  the  stage  of  human  and  deific  life,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  observe  that  they  are  the  predomi- 
nant manifestations  or  personified  attributes  of  the 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         73 

superior  gods,  as  they  are  developed  in  the  laws  and 
phenomena  of  nature  ;  ay,  nature  itself  in  all  its 
mutations  of  renovation  and  decay,  of  propitious  and 
adverse  influences,  under  the  mystic  guise  of  fable  and 
allegory;  and  that  their  actions  and  passions,  their 
deaths  and  resurrections,  their  beneficent  labors  and 
glorious  deeds  of  heroism,  or  their  subjugations  under 
inimical  powers,  and  deplorable  state  of  imbecility, 
can  only  receive  a  thorough  exposition  as  well  as  a 
just  appreciation,  from  the  symbolical  theology  of 
polytheism,  to  an  acquaintance  with  which  the  reader 
may  therefore  expect,  in  due  time,  to  be  introduced.* 


CHAPTER    II. 

THEIR    RELATIVE    ANTIQUITY. 

The  comparative  antiquity  of  the  gods  may  be 
ascertained  with  some  degree  of  accuracy,  from  the 
age  in  which  the  priests,  as  the  natural  and  voluntary 
agents  of  the  higher  powers,  are  found  to  have  been 
dedicated  to  their  service,  or  as  the  artificial  creations, 
who  owe  their  origin,  or  at  least  their  sanction,  and 
characteristic  peculiarities,  either  wholly  or  in  part 

*  In  the  construction  of  this  chapter,  I  obtained  essential  aid 
from  Tooke's  "  Pantheon  of  Heathen  Gods  and  Illustrious  Heroes," 
—  an  acknowledgment  which  I  gratefully  makes  to  the  manes  of 
the  author. 

7 


74  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

to  extraneous  causes ;  such  as,  the  policy  of  civil 
rulers,  the  exigency  of  society,  and  the  inventions  or 
the  embellishments  of  the  poets.  In  the  primeval 
ages  of  the  world,  priests  as  naturally  sprang  up 
among  mankind  as  the  gods  themselves.  No  sooner 
did  any  one  conceive  the  presence  of  a  god,  and 
express  his  religious  sentiments  in  some  outward  act 
of  devotion,  than  he  performed  the  office  and  was 
entitled  to  the  appellation  of  a  priest ;  and  thus  the 
foundation  of  the  sacerdotal  profession  was  coeval 
with  the  first  practical  recognition  of  a  divinity  in 
nature.  Divine  worship  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
means  to  develop  the  human  mind,  and  to  inspire  it 
with  the  principles  of  virtue  ;  and  it  would,  therefore, 
be  difficult  to  conceive  of  what  use  the  gods  could 
possibly  have  been  to  the  human  race,  if  mankind 
either  did  not  or  could  not  acknowledge  and  adore 
them,  and  thus  obtain  the  important  end  of  religion 
—  the  amelioration  and  happiness  of  mortals. 

As  to  the  iconic  forms  under  which  the  gods  have 
been  represented  in  the  plastic  arts  of  polytheism, 
those  divinities  may  be  deemed  to  be  the  most 
ancient  whose  images  proclaim  a  fetich  origin :  the 
uncouth  offspring  of  a  gross  sensual  experience  of 
the  undefined  yet  subduing  material  forces  and  mani- 
festations of  the  external  world,  unrefined  by  taste, 
or  unimproved  and  unennobled  by  abstract  reasoning. 
As  the  domiciliary  relations  of  man  are  older  than 
his  political  associations,  so  the  domestic  gods  may 
be  supposed  to  have  existed  prior  to  those  who 
constituted  the  objects  of  municipal  worship.  And 
it  is  on  the  same  principle,  and  for  similar  reasons, 
that  those  gods  must  be  considered  to  have  been 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         75 

originated  in  remoter  antiquity,  whose  recognition  by- 
man  has  preceded  the  foundation  of  social  institu- 
tions. It  was  then  that  each  person  found  and 
served  his  god  according  to  his  means  or  his  faith, 
without  any  studied  plan  or  regard  to  prescription. 
\  However  interesting  the  subject  is  which  forms  the 
theme  of  these  investigations,  it  is  involved  in  the 
dense  mist  of  past  ages,  which  have,  in  many  in- 
stances, transmitted  to  posterity  the  records  of  insti- 
tutions, without  any  certain  criterion  by  which  to 
judge  of  the  date  at  which  they  were  founded,  or  of 
the  people  to  whom  they  owed  their  existence,  and  I 
shall,  therefore,  not  commit  the  folly  to  presume  that 
I  will  be  able  so  to  execute  my  task  as  to  leave  no 
room  for  vain  regrets  or  solid  improvements. 

"  The  most  ancient  order  of  priests,"  writes  Ken- 
nett,  "  were  the  Luperci,  sacred  to  Pan,  the  god  of 
the  country,  and  particularly  of  shepherds,  whose 
flocks  he  guarded.*  They  had  their  name  from  the 
deity  they  attended  on,  called  in  Greek  hikaios,  from 
lukos,  a  wolf,  in  Latin  lupus,f  because  the  chief 
employment  of  Pan  was  the  driving  away  such  beasts 
from  the  sheep  that  he  protected,"  etc.     These  priests 


*  In  case  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  primitive  Arcadians  did 
not  multiply  and  prosper  according  to  their  expectations,  the 
images  of  the  god  Pan  underwent  the  discipline  of  flagellation  at 
the  hands  of  the  offended  nomades :  a  behavior  which  clearly 
proves  the  rude  manners  and  puerile  faith  of  his  self-interested 
worshippers.  —  G. 

f  Plutarch  derives  the  name  of  the  Luperci  from  lupa,  a  she- 
wolf,  and  traces  the  origin  of  their  institution  to  the  fabulous  lupa 
which  suckled  Romulus  and  Remus,  but,  as  will  presently  appear, 
without  a  valid  reason.  —  G. 


76  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

celebrated  an  annual  festival,  designated  as  the 
Lupercalia,  in  the  month  of  February,  in  honor  of 
the  same  sylvan  deity,  and  which,  according  to  Plu- 
tarch, was  called  the  feast  of  wolves,  and  was  of  a 
lustral  character.  He  adds  that  it  claimed  to  be  of 
great  antiquity,  and  that  it  was  the  generally  received 
opinion  that  the  Arcadians,  at  the  period  of  their 
immigration  into  Italy,  under  the  conduct  of  Evander, 
introduced  it  among  the  natives.*  The  Arvales  were 
twelve  in  number,  and  the  terms  of  their  institution 
required  that  they  should  celebrate  the  Ambarvalia, 


*  The  horned  and  goatlike  Pan  is  evidently  the  same  as  Jupi- 
ter-Ammon.  Equally  true  is  it  that  Pan-Lukos  and  Zeus,  or 
Jupiter-Lycaus,  are  synonymous.  In  the  second  part  of  this  work, 
•where  the  lupercalia  will  be  astronomically  explained,  further  light 
will  be  thrown  upon  this  subject.  From  the  Theogony  and  Cos- 
mogony of  Hesiod,  we  learn  that  the  four  oldest  dynasties  of  gods 
were  those  of  Chaos,  the  first  that  existed  or  was  made — geneto, 
and  the  same  in  signification  as  Cliasma,  a  hollow  space  or  void ; 
Uranus,  ethereal  space,  derived  from  atira,  pure  air  —  the  animus 
of  Chaos :  it  also  means  time,  or  ora,  and  Jiora,  the  hour ;  Chronos 
or  Saturn,  time  in  its  proper  and  more  extensive  acceptation  ;  and 
Z  eus,  Deus,  or  Dis,  the  same  as  Jupiter,  the  god  of  the  year,  of 
ether,  and  the  lord  of  the  atmosphere.  Chaos,  according  to  this 
cosmo-geogonic  system,  being  the  primeval  god  from  whom  all  the 
male  deities  just  mentioned  emanated,  it  follows  that  the  last  in 
the  series,  as  well  as  the  first,  must  have  essentially  contained  all 
the  rest  in  his  godhead,  or  that  he  is  Chaos,  Uranus,  and  Chronos, 
only  under  a  modified  and  improved  form.  At  this  stage  of  deistic 
development,  the  theologians,  the  poets,  and  the  hiero-artists,  took 
a  stand  and  concentrated  all  that  is  great  and  good  in  Zeus  or 
Jupiter ;  and  hence  it  is  that  this  god  is  Pan,  or  Faunus,  All ; 
"  the  father  of  gods  and  men."  To  this  day,  Pan,  in  the  Slavic 
language,  denotes  a  lord,  and  fa num,  in  the  Latin,  is  a  temple  of 
the  gods  —  a  Pan-ilieoi. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         77 

festivals,  the  name  of  which  is  derived  ab  ambiendis 
arvis  —  going  round  the  fields,  and  which  consisted, 
beside  a  solemn  sacrifice  of  a  sow,  a  sheep,  and  a 
bull,  to  Ceres,  in  processions  round  the  fields,  in 
honor  of  the  goddess  of  corn.  The  ambarvalia  were 
twice  repeated  during  the  year,  once  in  April,  and 
again  in  July.  It  appears  that  during  the  proces- 
sions, the  celebrants  wore  wreaths  of  oak-leaves,  sing- 
ing hymns  to  Ceres,  and  entreating  her  to  preserve 
their  corn,  and  to  grant  them  an  abundant  harvest, 
while  a  crown  made  of  the  ears  of  corn,  and  secured 
to  its  place  by  a  white  fillet,  decked  their  brows  at 
the  sacrificial  rites.*  The  antiquity  of  the  Arvales  is 
at  least  coequal  with  the  foundation  of  Rome ;  for 
Romulus  in  his  own  person,  filled  the  first  vacancy 
in  the  order  composed  of  the  sons  of  Acca  Laurentia, 
who  had  the  honor  to  be  at  once  the  nurse  of  a  king 
and  the  mother  and  foundress  of  the  Arvalean  priest- 
hood. This  venerable  Roman  matron  being  herself 
a  priestess  of  Ceres,  and  a  strict  observer  of  the 
ambarvalian  solemnities,  before  violence  and  intrigue, 
or  the  omen  of  birds,  had  conferred  despotic  power 
on  Romulus,  it  is  likely  that  the  sacerdotal  order 
designated  by  the  appellation  of  her  pious  and  ex- 
emplary sons,  had  existed  under  another  name,  or 
languished  in  anonymous  obscurity,  long  anterior  to 
the  birth  of  the  seven-hilled  city,  and  that  it  is  one 
of  the  oldest  institutions  of  polytheism. 

The  Flamines,  whose  cognomen  is  derived  from 
their    headdress,   which,   it   appears,   was    a   flame- 

*  The  probability  is  that  the  oak-wreath  was  worn. in  the  spring, 
and  the  cereal  crown  in  July  —  the  season  of  ripe  grain. 


78  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

colored  turban,  were  at  first  only  three  in  number, 
and  distinguished  respectively  as  the  Flamen  Dialis, 
Partialis,  and  Quirinalis.  The  first  was  sacred  to 
Jupiter,  and  ranked  as  a  person  of  the  highest  con- 
sequence in  the  commonwealth ;  the  second,  to  Mars ; 
and  the  third,  to  Romulus:  the  most  powerful  celes- 
tial triumvirate,  and  who,  as  Gibbon  the  historian 
has  playfully  remarked,  "  "Watched  over  the  fate  of 
Rome,  and  of  the  universe."  To  Noma  the  Sabine 
prince  and  pious  successor  of  the  arrogant  Romulus, 
this  famous  order  of  priests  was  indebted  for  its 
origin.  The  three  Flamen s  thus  defined  were  always 
chosen  out  of  the  nobility.  "  Several  priests  of  the 
same  order,  though  of  inferior  power  and  dignity," 
says  Kennett,  u  were  added  in  later  times ;  the  whole 
number  being  generally  computed  at  fifteen." 

As  to  the  Salii.  whose  institution  dates  about  the 
same  time  as  that  of  their  Flaminian  brethren,  they 
were  the  avowed  guardians  of  the  renowned  Aneilia 
or  twelve  brazen  shields,  suspended  in  the  temple  of 
the  belligerent  Mais.  They  were  denominated  Salii, 
writes  Plutarch,  from  the  subsultive  dance  which  they 
performed  along  the  streets,  when,  in  the  month  of 
March,  they  carried  the  sacred  shields  through  the  city 
which  was  twice  destined  to  be  the  mistress  of  the 
world;  but  which  has  already  been  once  signally 
despoiled  of  her  fame  and  power,  and  now  apparently 
trembles  a  second  time  on  the  verge  of  a  profound 
humiliation.  According  to  tradition,  one  of  these 
shields,  and  the  original  and  type  of  all  the  rest,  fell 
from  heaven  into  the  hands  of  Noma,  whose  exem- 
plary zeal  in  the  cause  of  the  gods  and  of  religion 
was  thus  miraculously  rewarded ;  and  the  fair  goddess 


IX   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  79 

Egeria  assured  her  devout  favorite  that  this  wonder- 
ful shield  had  been  sent  by  the  immortal  gods  for  the 
cure  and  the  safety  of  the  infant  city,  whose  inhabi- 
tants just  then  suffered  from  the  ravages  of  a  most 
destructive  pestilence.*     On  the  Epulos  —  Epulones, 


*  The  assertion  in  the  text,  that  the  orkdn  of  the  Salii  dated 
nearly  at  the  same  time  as  that  of  the  Flamines,  has  reference  only 
to  their  introduction  among  the  Romans.  From  Servius  on  the 
JEneid  of  Virgil,  we  learn  that  the  people  of  the  ancient  cities  of 
Tusculum  and  of  the  Tibur,  had  their  Salii  loner  before  the 
Romans.  Plutarch,  in  the  Life  of  ^uma,  traces  the  Salii  to  a  per- 
son of  the  name  of  Salius,  a  Samothracian,  whom  JEneas  carried 
with  him  to  Italy,  where  he  instructed  the  youths  of  the  country  in 
the  Pvrrhic  dance.  Others  ajrain  derive  the  institution  from  Ar- 
cadia,  or  from  Asia,  and  all  the  researches  on  the  subject  show 
that  the  Salian  priesthood  was  founded  in  the  primeval  ages  of 
heathenism.  At  Rome  they  had  their  temple  on  the  Palatine  hill ; 
there  thev  exercised  their  sacred  functions :  and  hence  thev  were 
surnamed  the  Palatini.  Originally  the  Salian  college  amounted 
to  the  same  number  as  that  of  the  sacred  shields  committed  to 
their  care.  They  were  attired  in  a  variegated  and  embroidered 
robe,  tunica  picta.  They  usually  wore  a  mitre  or  cap,  called  ape x, 
which  tapered  to  a  sharp  point,  and  resembled  a  helmet.  On 
festival  occasions,  however,  as  it  appears  from  the  JEneid  of  Virgil, 
wreaths  made  of  poplar-leaves  decked  their  saintly  brows.  Their 
services  were  dedicated  to  Mai's,  considered  especially  as  Mars 
Gradivus  —  a  gradiendo  in  bdla :  a  martial  god,  who  rushes  into 
battle  with  hasty  and  determined  steps.  The  festival  of  the  stern 
god  of  war  was  celebrated  in  the  Campus  Martins,  on  the  first  day 
of  March,  on  which  commenced  the  year  of  the  old  Romans.  It 
was  then  that  the  earth  began  to  be  covered  with  verdure,  and 
when  their  warriors  and  their  steeds  could  once  more  safely 
encamp  under  the  sky  of  sunny  Italy ;  that  the  Salii.  in  honor  of 
their  god  and  illustrious  heroes,  marched  in  procession,  clashed 
and  brandished  their  ancilia,  and  performed  their  icar-dance  with 
martial  sons  and  frantic  mien.  The  burden  of  their  hvmns  were 
the  praises  of  the  immortal  gods,  especially  their  patron  deity,  and 


80  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

according  to  the  author  of  the  "  Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,"  devolved  the  enviable  prerog- 
ative of  preparing  the  table  of  the  gods;*  of  regu- 
lating the  ceremonies  of  their  annual  festival ;  and 
of  conducting  the  solemn  procession  on  that  thrilling 
occasion.  As  soon  as  the  gods  had  begun  to  share 
in  the  improved  knowledge  and  the  more. polished 
manners  of  their  worshippers,  and  to  assume  the 
human  form,  they  were  presumed  to  participate  at 
least  in  some  of  the  tastes  and  pleasures,  as  well  as 
the  wants  and  infirmities,  natural  to  man ;  and  we 
therefore  consider  it  as  one  of  the  most  ancient  func- 
tions of  the  sacerdotal  order,  to  provide  not  only 
ambrosia  and  nectar,  but  the  more  solid  and  perhaps 
equally  savory  viands  for  the  gods,  and  that  Epulones 
of  some  kind  were  early  set  apart  to  minister  to  them 
in  this  flattering  and  important  capacity. 

As  the  Lares  and  some  of  the  Penates,  distin- 
guished as  the  small  gods,  had,  as  has  been  shown  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  the  supervision  of  human 
habitations,  and  of  the  connubial  ties  and  offspring, 
they  are  justly  to  be  regarded  as  very  ancient  deities, 
because  a  numerous  train  of  want  and  cares,  requir- 
ing divine  succor,  must  soon  have  developed  itself  in 
the  domestic  relations  of  mankind.  Accordingly  we 
find  household  gods  to  have  existed  in  Mesopotamia 
more  than  thirty-five  centuries  ago,  as  may  be  seen 

the  glory  of  valiant  men,  whose  feats  in  arms  and  noble  daring  had 
immortalized  their  names,  and  endeared  their  memory  among  a 
warlike  people. 

*  At  such  symposial  entertainments,  the  gods  were  not  only  the 
guests,  but  the  companions  of  their  votaries  at  the  same  table,  or 
as  Pausanias  says,  Chenoi  and  omotra  pezoi. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         81 

by  consulting  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Genesis.  In  conclusion,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the 
East  is  the  prolific  hive,  whence  not  only  mankind 
but  also  their  gods  and  their  priests,  have  emigrated 
to  the  West,  and  that  in  tracing  many  of  the  latter 
to  their  sources,  we  must  observe  the  converse  of  this 
egressive  movement,  and  go,  for  instance,  from  Rome 
to  Greece,  from  Greece  to  Egypt,  to  Phoenicia, 
Phrygia,  etc.  Gillies,  the  elegant  historian  of  ancient 
Greece,  pronounces  the  religion  of  the  Romans  to 
have  been  a  mere  plagiarism  from  the  Greeks,  but 
forgets  to  add  that  the  people  whose  religious  supe- 
riority he  so  loudly  extols,  did  frequently  not  scruple 
to  replenish  their  altars  and  their  temples  from  the 
fertile  valley  of  the  Nile,  without  acknowledgment 
of  their  indebtedness  to  those  barbarians  ! 


SECTION  VI. 

THE  NATURE  OR  ATTRIBUTES  OF  THE  GODS,  AND  THEIR 
MORAL  AND  PHYSICAL  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE 

WORLD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

illE    NATURE    OR    ATTRIBUTES    OF    THE    GODS. 

The  first  feature  in  the  nature  of  the  gods  which 
strikes  the  attention  of  the  inquirer,  is  that  they  are 
not  self-existent,  but  effects  in  the  great  chain  of 
causation.  They  are  also  subject  to  fate  :  the  unal- 
terable and  all-pervading  laws  by  which  the  Supreme 
Being  governs  the  universe.  Their  mental  and  cor- 
poreal endowments  vary  in  degree  and  quality ;  but 
the  highest  type  of  reality  under  which  they  appear 
or  are  presumed  to  exist,  is  the  human  form,  which 
it  transcends,  however,  in  ideal  perfections  of  power, 
beauty,  and  excellence.  Their  character  is  modified 
by  the  influences  and  mutations  of  the  emotions  and 
passions,  which  are  inherent  even  in  the  most  ex- 
alted order  of  finite  spirits,  while  their  shapes  and 
potency  are  doomed  to  changes  :  this  is  a  fact  w7hich 
is  not  well  defined  or  clearly  expressed  in  Homer, 

(82) 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         83 

though,  as  it  will  appear  hereafter,  it  is  deeply  and 
indelibly  impressed  upon  the  whole  symbolical  life 
and  relations  of  the  gods.  Though  the  intelligence 
of  the  gods  is  of  a  superior  grade  and  of  ample 
limits,  it  is  confined ;  and  when  omniscience  is  as- 
cribed to  them,  it  is  to  be  deemed  to  be  such  only 
comparatively.  The  reason  of  this  is  evident ;  for 
the  gods  being  the  reflection  of  the  human  image, 
they  could  not  at  first  greatly  exceed  their  original  in 
any  of  the  psychological  perfections.  As,  however, 
the  limits  of  history  and  geography  widened,  and  the 
physical  and  moral  sciences  began  to  be  cultivated 
with  some  success,  the  knowledge  of  the  gods  also 
proportionably  augmented.  It  is  only  after  man  has 
attained  the  necessary  skill  to  generalize  his  obser- 
vations and  experience,  and  has  found  appropriate 
language  to  express  the  inductive  processes  of  rea- 
soning, that  his  gods  assume  the  embodiment  of  the 
higher  and  nobler  efforts  of  his  abstract  ideas, 
divested  of  every  imperfection,  and  independent  of 
the  limits  and  conditions  of  time  and  form :  such 
was  the  theology  of  the  sages  and  philosophers  of 
heathen  antiquity.  Besides,  the  gods  loathe  and 
desire,  love  and  hate,  or  reason  and  resolve,  similar 
to  mankind ;  and  their  motives  of  action  are  rather 
sensual  than  purely  moral,  because  man  himself,  long 
after  his  recognition  and  worship  of  the  celestial 
powers,  knew  no  higher  principle  of  conduct.  Even 
when  the  vast  and  complex  system  of  polytheism 
was  completed,  and  the  gods,  as  the  symbolical 
representations  of  the  laws  and  attributes  of  the 
Almighty,  manifested  in  the  works  and  phenomena 
of  nature,  stood  before  the  world  in  their  ultimate 


84  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

development  and  awful  majesty ;  and  an  image  of 
the  true  God  was  here  and  there  accurately  traced 
among  the  manifold  deistic  forms,  the  human  race 
generally  had  just  ascended  high  enough  or  sunk 
sufficiently  low,  to  desire  or  to  need  the  last  and 
highest  epiphany  of  the  Supreme  Being,  in  a  direct, 
an  unerring,  and  a  world-embracing  revelation.  But 
let  us  contemplate  the  divinities  of  heathenism  in  the 
fresh  and  lifelike  picture  drawn  of  them  by  Homer, 
in  his  immortal  epic  poem,  the  Iliad,  and  anglicized 
if  not  adorned,  by  the  stately  and  melodious  rhythm 
of  Pope.  Behold,  like  the  august  Amphictyons  of 
Greece  or  the  illustrious  senators  of  Rome,  the  gods 
deliberate  in  council,  and  their  decisions  are  sacred 
and  inviolable.  When  Jupiter  enters  the  celestial 
palace,  the  rest  of  the  deities  rise  from  their  thrones 
to  do  him  homage.  Like  the  sages  who  deserve 
their  Olympian  fame,  they  generally  reason  on  a  prop- 
osition before  they  approve  or  reject  it,  unless  they 
are  governed  by  impulse  or  warped  by  partiality, 
which  is  not  seldpm  the  case,  showing  that  the  con- 
struction of  their  minds  is  analogous  to  our  own. 
The  genuine  gods  are  immortal,  though  their  forms, 
as  it  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  undergo  diseased  and 
deathlike  metamorphoses ;  but  the  mixed  offspring 
of  gods  and  men,  the  demi-gods,  are  liable  to  death : 
Sarpedon,  Achilles,  etc.  The  gods  and  goddesses 
woo,  are  won,  or  resist.  Their  ordinary  marital  con- 
nections comprise  the  closest  ties  of  consanguinity, 
though  sometimes  they  form  temporary  alliances 
with  mortals.  They  caress  or  chastise  their  infant 
race,  and  always  take  a  deep  and  an  abiding  interest 
in  their  welfare.     They  are  sometimes  represented  to 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         85 

be  of  a  colossal  size,  indicative  of  superior  greatness 
and  excellence :  there  was  not  a  goodlier  person 
among  the  children  of  Israel  than  Saul,  who  from 
his  shoulders  and  upwards,  ivas  higher  than  any  of 
the  people.  The  Olympian  Jupiter  had  a  statue  at 
Olympia  in  Elis,  fifty  cubits  high,  and  it  was  es- 
teemed to  be  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world; 
it  was  the  production  of  Phidias,  and  stood  in  the 
temple  of  the  god,  at  the  end  of  the  Altis  or  sacred 
grove.  The  vast  image  of  Baal  or  Bel,  the  Babylo- 
nian Jupiter,  which  was  sixty  cubits  high  and  six 
wide,  and  erected  in  the  plain  of  Dura  at  Babylon, 
is  mentioned  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Daniel.  Another  production  of  huge  dimensions 
and  attesting  the  masterly  genius  of  the  Athenian 
statuary  just  noticed,  was  a  statue  of  the  goddess 
Minerva  at  Athens,  "  composed,"  writes  Gillies,  "  of 
gold  and  ivory,  and  twenty-six  cubits  high,*  repre- 
sented with  the  casque,  the  buckler,  the  lance,  and 
all  her  usual  emblems ;  and  the  warm  fancy  of  the 
Athenians,  enlivened  and  transported  by  the  grace- 
ful majesty  of  her  air  and  aspect,  confounded  the 
painful  production  of  the  statuary  with  the  instan- 
taneous creation  of  Jupiter.  To  confirm  this  useful 
illusion,  the  crafty  priests  of  the  temple  carefully 
washed  and  brightened  the  image,  whose  extraordi- 
nary lustre  increased  the  veneration  of  the  multitude, 

etc."  f 


*Miverva's  statue  was  thirty-nine  feet  nigh,  calculating  the 
cubit  at  a  foot  and  a  half.  —  G. 

f  To  keep  a  master  production  of  art  and  especially  the  statue 
of  a  divinity  clean  and  bright,  and  to  manifest  a  becoming  in- 

8 


86  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

When  fully  exercised,  the  tread  and  voice  of 
the  gods  are  terrific.  When  Posidon,  laboring  un- 
der strong  excitement,  firmly  planted  his  feet  upon 
the  earth,  it  trembled,  the  forests  shook,  and  the 
mountains  quaked.  Mars,  when  wounded  in  the 
memorable  siege  of  Troy,  bellowed  with  pain,  — 

"  Loud  as  the  roar  encountering  armies 
"When  shouting  millions  shake  the  trembling  field ; " 

and  Jove  frowns  with  so  prodigious  an  intensity  that 
the  world  is  clouded  and  half  the  sky  shrouded  in 
black.  He  smiles  too :  so  does  his  august  consort 
Juno,  but  spleen  is  in  her  heart ;  and  so  supreme  is 
his  authority  over  the  immortal  denizens  of  Olym- 
pus, that  he  can  punish  them  even  with  the  pains  of 
Tartarus.     The  gods  require  rest  and  sleep,  — 

"  Jove  on  his  couch  reclin'd  his  awful  head, 
And  Juno  slumber'd  on  the  golden  bed." 

They  also  laugh,  and  so  boisterous  was  the  laugh 
which  they  once  raised  at  Vulcan's  awkward  grace, 
that  the  skies  shook.  Their  propensity  for  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  table  as  well  as  their  fondness  for  har- 
monical  strains,  is  not  to  be  mistaken.  They  feast 
on  ambrosia  and  nectar,  —  wine  too,  does  not  come 
amiss,  while  Apollo  plays  on  the  lyre,  and  the 
Muses,  with  voice  alternate,  accompany  the  silver 
sound ;  and  so  long  do  they  indulge  in  the  festive 
glee,  that  at  last  it  grows  dark,  when  they  break  up 
and  retire  to  their  starry  domes.     The  grief  of  Achil- 

terest  in  (Esthetic  propriety,  seem  not  necessarily  to  "warrant  the 
invidious  imputation  of  crafty,  when  applied  to  the  Minervian 
priests.  —  G. 


IX  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         87 

les  for  the  loss  of  his  beloved  friend  Patroclus, 
excited  so  lively  a  sympathy  in  the  breast  of  Thetis, 
his  divine  mother,  that  she  shed  a  flood  of  tears. 
Neptune,  also,  was  touched  with  sincere  sorrow  at 
the  untimely  fate  of  his  slain  grandson.  A  sight  of 
the  carnage  at  Troy,  fills  the  sensitive  soul  of  Juno 
with  the  emotions  of  a  profound  sadness ;  while 
Apollo  is  delighted  with  the  sweet  paeans  sang  to 
his  honor  :  he  listens  and  approves! 

All  these  instances  of  a  deep-felt  interest  in  the 
sufferings  of  others,  as  well  as  the  innocent  satisfac- 
tion experienced  at  the  melodious  expressions  of  a 
just  and  spontaneous  homage,  are  indicative  of  the 
existence  and  force  of  the  nobler  sentiments.  A  god 
sometimes  reproves  another,  and  Jupiter  plainly 
told  the  stern  god  of  war,  that  he  was  unjust,  and 
odious  in  his  sight.  Besides,  these  celestial  patrons 
grant  or  refuse  the  prayers  of  mortals,  according  to 
the  exigency  of  the  case,  or  the  treatment  which 
they  receive  at  their  hands.  They  are  placable  and 
inculcate  the  forgiveness  of  injuries ;  yet  owing  to 
some  old  grudge,  Minerva  often  afflicted  Mars'  bru- 
tal breast  with  woes. 

Surgery  is  practised  in  Heaven,  and  even  gods  ex- 
ercise their  skill  in  the  Hippocratean  art.  Diomedes 
wounds  the  martial  divinity  just  mentioned,  and 
sends  him  groaning  to  the  spirit-world :  he  bleeds  and 
is  in  a  sullen  mood.  Pseon,  physician  of  the  celestial 
patients,  is  directed  by  the  great  Jupiter,  to  take 
charge  of  the  vanquished  and  suffering  god.  And 
thus, — 

"  With  gentle  hand  the  balm  he  pour'd  around, 
And  heal'd  the  immortal  flesh,  and  clos'd  the  wound." 


88  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Apollo  himself  condescends  to  dress  the  gaping 
wound  of  the  dying  Glaucus,  and  to  breathe  new  life 
into  his  fainting  heart.  It  deserves  also  to  be  re- 
marked that  whatever  is  attempted  against  the  will 
of  the  divine  powers,  is  unavailing.'  Rich  offerings, 
however,  can  accomplish  a  great  deal  with  them :  — 

"  Their  pcnv'rs  neglected,  and  no  victim  slain, 
The  walls  were  rais'd,  the  trenches  sunk  in  vain." 

When  Agamemnon  interceded  with  "the  father  of 
the  gods  and  men,"  in  behalf  of  the  sad  remnant  of 
his  unhappy  Greeks,  it  was  sufficient  thus  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  god  to  the  past,  — 

"  To  thee  my  vows  were  breath'd  from  ev'ry  shore  ; 
What  altars  smok'd  not  with  our  victim's  gore  ? 
With  fat  of  bulls  I  fed  the  constant  flame, 
And  ask'd  destruction  to  the  Trojan  name," 

when  instantly  he  sent  a  fawn,  borne  by  the  "  bird  of 
heaven,"  an  eagle,  into  the  Grecian  camp,  the  pledge 
of  his  favor,  and  a  victim  for  his  altars.  It  is  also 
possible  for  a  deity  to  be  emulous  of  distinction, 
and  the  blue-eyed  Athena  was  deeply  sensible  of  the 
honor  of  being  first  named  among  all  her  illustrious 
compeers.  Anxiety  causes  sleepless  nights  in  heaven 
as  well  as  upon  the  earth.  The  few  straggling  flow- 
ers which  we  may  gather  on  the  bleak  mountains  of 
Scandinavian  mythology,  and  which  will  serve  to 
compare  a  ruder  with  a  more  polished  race  of  gods, 
we  respectfully  present  as  a  freewill-offering,  to  Juno 
the  imperious  queen, — 

"  A  goddess  born  to  share  the  realms  above, 
And  styl'd  the  consort  of  the  thund'ring  Jove." 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         89 

According  to  M'Pherson,  Ossian's  spirit  of  Loda, 
in  Carricthura,  is  a  Scandinavian  god,  and  the  same 
as  Odin.  His  residence  was  in  Inistore,  or  the 
Orkney  Islands.*  This  Norse  deity  is  composed  of 
very  ghostly  attributes.  His  form  is  gloomy  and  his 
mien  dismal.  His  eyes  appear  like  flames ;  his  voice 
is  hollow  and  resembles  distant  thunder.  Even  his 
martial  weapons  are  of  the  most  subtile  texture ;  for 
his  sword  is  a  meteor,  and  his  spear  airy.  He  goes 
forth  on  the  wings  of  the  wind ;  but  his  dwelling  is 
calm  above  the  clouds,  and  the  fields  of  his  rest  are 
pleasant.  He  is,  however,  a  very  puissant  god  ;  the 
people  bend  before  him ;  he  turns  the  battle  in  the 
field  of  the  brave  ;  he  looks  on  the  nations,  and  they 
vanish ;  and  his  nostrils  pour  the  blast  of  death. 
Like  Mars,  the  spirit  of  Loda,  with  all  his  super- 
human qualities,  is  vulnerable;  feels  pain;  and  ex- 
presses his  keen  sense  of  it  in  a  most  frightful  man- 
ner. He  and  Fingal  have  a  quarrel  which  ends  in 
a  deadly  encounter,  and  which  is  thus  graphically 
portrayed  :  "  He  lifted  high  his  shadowy  spear  !  He 
bent  forward  his  dreadful  height.  Fingal  advancing, 
drew  his  sword,  the  blade  of  dark-brown  Ltino.  The 
gleaming  path  of  the  steel  winds  through  the  gloomy 
ghost.  The  form  fell  shapeless  into  the  air,  like  a 
column  of  smoke,  which  the  staff  of  the  boy  disturbs, 


*  The  spirit  of  Loda  "was  not  acknowledged  by  Fingal  as  his 
deity  :  he  did  not  worship  at  the  stone  of  Ms  power  !  "  There  are," 
says  M'Pherson,  "  many  pillars  and  circles  of  stones  still  remain- 
ing in  the  Orkney  Islands,  known  by  the  name  of  the  stones  and 
circles  of  Loda ; "  they  were  the  altars  and  incipient  temples  of 
the  gods. 

8* 


90  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

as  it  rises  from  the  half  extinguished  furnace.  The 
spirit  of  Loda  shrieked,  as,  rolled  into  himself,  he 
rose  on  the  wind.  Inistore  shook  at  the  sound. 
The  waves  heard  it  on  the  deep.  They  stopped,  in 
their  course,  with  fear :  the  friends  of  Fingal  started 
at  once ;  and  took  their  heavy  spears.  They  missed 
the  king ;  they  rose  in  rage ;  all  their  arms  resound." 
Thor,  the  thunderer,  is  the  Jupiter  of  the  Scandi- 
navians. His  form  is  the  human,  and  he  personates 
in  every  respect,  though  on  a  preternatural  scale, 
the  life  and  character  of  man.  "  The  thunder," 
writes  Carlyle,  "  was  his  wrath  ;  the  gathering  of  the 
black  clouds  is  the  drawing  down  of  Thor's  angry 
brows  ;  the  fire-bolt  bursting  out  of  Heaven  is  the 
all-rending  hammer  flung  from  the  hand  of  Thor : 
he  urges  his  loud  chariot  over  the  mountain  tops  — 
that  is  the  peal;  wrathfully  he  'blows  in  his  red 
beard;'  that  is  the  rustling  storm  blast  before  the 
thunder  begins.  He  engages  in  all  manner  of  rough 
manual  work,  scorns  no  business  for  its  plebeianism ; 
is  ever  and  anon  travelling  to  the  country  of  the 
Jotuns,  hurrying  those  chaotic  frost-monsters,  subdu- 
ing them,  at  least  straightening  and  damaging  them." 
This  severe  and  sullen  divinity  would  not  only  scowl 
when  he  was  in  a  rage,  but  grasp  his  ponderous  ham- 
mer, till  his  knuckles  grew  white.  So  delicious  a 
drink  as  nectar,  it  appears,  was  unknown  among  the 
Norse  deities  ;  for  Thor,  in  order  that  his  celestial 
brethren  might  brew  beer,  went  once  expressly  to 
Jotun  land,  to  seek  Hymir's  caldron.  After  much 
rough  tumult,  he  succeeded  in  snatching  the  vessel 
from  the  giant,  and  clapping  it  on  his  head,  he  found 
that  the  handles  of  it  reached  down  to  his  heels.     A 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         91 

grotesque  figure  for  a  god ;  but  the  feat  indicates  a 
jouisant  view  which  it  is  pleasing  to  observe  in  so 
stern  a  being. 

Baldur,  the  white  god,  is  the  personification  of  the 
sun.  He  is  described  as  being  beautiful,  just,  and 
benignant ;  and  the  early  Christian  missionaries  ven- 
tured to  trace  a  resemblance  between  him  and 
Christ.  Baldur,  the  lovely  and  the  good  died,  and  all 
nature  was  tried  for  a  remedy  to  restore  him,  but  in 
vain.  Frigga,  his  grief-stricken  mother,  sent  Her- 
mod,  one  of  the  sons  of  Thor,  to  recover,  or  at  least 
to  see  him.  Nine  days  and  nine  nights  the  swift 
messenger  of  the  gods  rode  with  the  speed  of  the 
winds  towards  the  frigid,  dark  region  of  the  north 
pole,  when  at  last,  alas!  he  found  him  in  the 
shadowy  abodes  of  the  dead.  He  at  once  recog- 
nizes him,  speaks  with  him,  but  he  cannot  be  deliv- 
ered ;  Hela  —  hell,  is  inexorable !  I  will  only  add 
that  the  death  of  this  most  amiable  and  charming  of 
all  the  Scandinavian  divinities,  is  a  mere  metamor- 
phosis in  his  planetary  existence,  and  that  the  import 
of  this  myth  is  the  symbolical  representation  of  the 
sun  at  the  winter  solstice.  In  conclusion,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  in  the  image  which  the  character  of 
the  gods  presents  to  the  mind,  we  discover  greater 
physical  than  moral  perfections ;  for  though  their 
moral  attributes  are  distinguished  for  many  admira- 
ble virtues,  some  of  which  are  truly  divine,  and  far 
exceed  the  highest  efforts  of  unaided  humanity,  yet 
in  their  totality  they  fall  far  short  of  ideal  perfection. 
To  give  a  condensed  outline  of  the  general  nature 
of  the  gods,  founded  on  the  exoteric  creed  of  poly- 
theism, they  were  mighty,  yet  they    suffered ;  just, 


92  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

yet  not  without  selfishness ;  merciful,  yet  partial  or 
unpitying;  holy,  yet  peccable;  wise,  yet  not  free 
from  error.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  is  a  maxim  in 
moral  theology,  that  the  ideas  of  mankind  in  respect 
to  the  gods  and  even  the  Supreme  Being,  are  more 
or  less  the  reflex  personifications  of  their  own  psy- 
chological development. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THEIR    MORAL    AND    PHYSICAL    ADMINISTRATION    OF    THE 

WORLD. 

In  treating  of  the  administration  of  the  gods,  it 
will  be  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  accurately  to 
define  the  nature  of  the  government  under  which 
they  exercise  their  lofty  functions.  A  republican 
form  of  government,  however  desirable  it  may  be  in 
the  civil  organizations  of  mankind,  is  impracticable 
in  the  social  relations  of  the  gods,  because  they  are 
not  by  nature  all  equal,  but  of  different  grades  of 
rank  and  power,  as  well  as  in  trust  of  distinct  duties 
and  relations.  Nor  is  an  oligarchy  admissible  among 
the  lands  of  polity  which  are  best  adapted  to  them ; 
for  this  species  of  supreme  authority  confines  the 
helm  of  state  to  a  select  number  among  the  constitu- 
ents, which,  though  feasible  among  mortals,  would 
be  absolute  death  to  the  superior  powers.  The  rea- 
son is,  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  is  not  obliged 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         93 

or  determined  in  his  turn,  to  bear  part  of  the  burden 
and  enjoy  some  of  the  honors  incident  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  world,  however  inferior  might  be  the 
post  which  he  should  fill  in  a  nicely  graduated  sys- 
tem of  spiritual  dignities  and  ritual  distinctions. 
This  judicious  arrangement,  it  will  be  perceived, 
makes  them  all  essentially  necessary  and  important 
parts  of  one  unbroken,  stupendous  whole.  Such 
being  the  facts  of  the  case,  a  monarchical  form  of 
government  is  the  only  available  one,  under  the  ex- 
isting" conditions  of  confederation  among  the  gods ; 
and  accordingly  both  mythology  and  history,  poetry 
and  the  fine  arts,  inform  us  that  they  have  always 
recognized  its  superiority  over  every  other  form  of 
deistic  polity,  and  scrupulously  carried  out  its  princi- 
ples in  all  their  connections  with  the  universe  or  with 
mankind. 

The  principal  deities  who  composed  the  celestial 
monarchies  of  polytheism,  were  seldom  confined  in 
their  administrative  functions  to  a  single  province  or 
nation,  but  extended  their  dominion  over  the  re- 
motest parts  of  the  habitable  globe  under  various 
names  and  modified  rituals.  The  uninitiated  in 
mythological  science,  is  apt  to  contemplate  differ- 
ent gods  in  the  Jupiter  or  Zeus  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans ;  the  Osiris  of  the  Egyptians ;  the  Bel  of 
the  Assyrians ;  the  Thor  and  the  Odin  of  the  Teu- 
tonic people  ;  the  Brahma  of  the  Hindoos ;  and  the 
Ormuzd  of  the  Persians,  etc. ;  whereas  they  are 
essentially  the  same.  Likewise  the  Isis  of  the  Nile, 
the  Hertha  of  the  Germans,  and  the  Ceres  of  the 
Greeks ;  the  Astarte  of  the  Syrians,  the  Phoenicians, 
the  Venus  of  Greece,  and  the  Freyja  of  Scandina- 


94  TIIE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

via;  Juno,  the  queen  of  heaven,  and  Frigga,  the 
mother  of  the  gods ;  the  Mitra  of  the  Persians,  and 
the  Vesta  of  the  Hellenic  and  Roman  people,  agree 
respectively  in  the  main  features  of  a  common  char- 
acter, and  concordant  functions.  Even  this  list  of 
goddesses  can  be  legitimately  so  abbreviated  as  to 
resolve  all  these  fair  beings  into  one,  when  we  shall 
have  but  a  single  divine  pair.  In  short,  at  the  foun- 
dation of  every  well  arranged  system  of  theogony, 
there  were  but  few  radical  deities,  and  the  most  of 
the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  popular  creed,  were 
but  the  evolutions  and  modifications  of  the  primary 
divinities  —  their  sons  and  daughters  :  themselves 
under  new  forms  and  relations.  Thus  a  few  male 
and  female  deities  of  a  benignant  nature  Avith  their 
offspring,  who  responded  to  other  names  and  func- 
tions ;  and  a  small  number  of  malignant  divinities, 
together  with  their  progenitial  ramifications,  consti- 
tuted esoterically  the  concise  nomenclature  of  the 
theogonic  family.  Owing  to  conquests,  when  the 
victors  would  impose  their  gods  on  the  vanquished, 
or  to  colonizations  and  emigrations,  when  the  gods 
of  the  mother  country  would  accompany  their  vota- 
ries, more  than  one  tribe  or  nation  worshipped  the 
same  deities  even  in  name  ;  as,  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Assyrians,  the 
Phoenicians,  and  the  Carthaginians  on  the  other.  As 
has  been  stated,  there  were  malignant  divinities  who 
had  an  empire  of  their  own,  and  whose  power,  though 
fearfully  extensive,  was  restricted  within  proper  limits 
by  their  benignant  antagonists.  The  most  notorious 
among  them  were  Ahriman,  Moisasur,  Loki,  and 
Typhon,    and   his   mischievous   spouse,   Nephthys: 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         95 

the  first  resided  in  the  country  of  the  Magi ;  the 
second  on  the  shores  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges; 
the  third  among  the  pines  and  glaciers  of  Scandina- 
via ;  and  the  fourth  or  the  wedded  pair,  in  the  deserts 
bordering  from  the  east  and  the  west  on  the  valley 
of  the  lower  Nile.  Beside  these  distinguishing  fea- 
tures  in  the  political  organization  of  the  gods,  each 
celestial  power  usually  presided  over  a  particular 
branch  of  the  deific  government.  On  Mercury  de- 
volved the  duty  to  be  the  messenger  of  his  divine 
compeers  ;  Bacchus  bore  sway  over  the  convivial  cup 
and  its  orgian  rites  ;  and  stern  Mars  found  his  post 
wherever  the  cry  of  battle  and  the  clash  of  arms  re- 
sounded in  martial  discord.  Apollo  presided  over 
the  fine  arts,  medicine,  music,  poetry,  and  eloquence  ; 
while  Neptune  stretched  his  pronged  sceptre  over 
the  green  waters  and  mountain- waves  of  old  ocean. 
Ceres  introduced  the  cereal  grains  among  mankind, 
and  guided  and  fostered  agrarian  pursuits  ;  to  be  the 
queen  of  love  and  the  mistress  of  grace  and  soft 
delights,  became  none  so  well  as  Venus ;  Flora 
betrayed  her  refined  taste  in  the  cultivation  of  flow- 
ers ;  and  the  elastic  and  sprightly  Diana  strung  her 
bow  in  the  sports  and  fatigues  of  the  chase. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  social  constitution 
of  the  gods,  and  such  the  preliminary  evidence  of 
the  providential  care  which  they  exercised  over  the 
pursuits  and  the  interests  of  mortals.  A  few  facts, 
derived  from  the  records  of  history  and  mythology, 
will  serve  to  enlighten  our  judgment  and  confirm 
our  convictions.  According  to  the  mythological 
system  of  the  Hindoos,  Vichnou,  in  the  capacity  of 
preserver   of  the   world,   appeared   upon   the   earth 


96  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

whenever  vice  and  tyranny  threatened  to  endanger 
the  safety  of  mankind.  Ten  incarnations  in  the 
shape  of  man,  beast,  or  monster,  attested  the  deep 
interest  which  the  beneficent  god  has  taken  in  the 
happiness  of  the  human  race,  and  the  paramount 
importance  which  he  attached  to  virtue.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  repeated  acts  of  redemption,  Brahma, 
the  creator  of  the  world,  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
exalted  destiny  of  man,  kindly  gave  him  his  laws, 
and  encouraged  him  to  persevere  in  a  holy  life,  in 
the  hope  of  a  glorious  reunion  with  Parabrama  :  the 
illimitable  of  time.  Csssar  and  Cicero,  "two  of  the 
most  illustrious  Romans :  the  one  perhaps  unrivalled 
as  a  military  chieftain,  the  other,  as  a  forensic  ora- 
tor, both  acknowledge  a  moral  supervision  of  the 
gods  in  the  life  and  transactions  of  man.  The  for- 
mer, in  a  speech  addressed  to  the  Helvetian  am- 
bassadors, headed  by  Divico,  having  called  their 
attention  to  the  refractory  conduct  of  their  nation, 
apprises  them  of  the  fate  which  infallibly  awaited 
those  whose  unrepented  guilt  was  similar  to  their 
own,  and  bids  them  remember,  "  That  the  immortal 
gods  were  sometimes  wont  to  grant  long  impunity, 
and  a  great  run  of  prosperity  to  men,  whom  they 
pursued  with  the  punishment  of  their  crimes,  that, 
by  the  sad  reverse  of  their  condition,  vengeance 
might  fall  the  heavier."  *  The  latter,  in  that  part  of 
his  work  on  the  Highest  Good  and  Evil,  dedicated  to 
Marcus  Brutus,  having  stated  that  though  evil-doers 
might  flatter  themselves  to  have  nothing  to  fear  on 
account  of  their  conduct,  from  the  knowledge  or  the 

*  Duncan. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         97 

justice  of  mankind,  they  nevertheless,  "  Shuddered 
at  the  thought  that  the  gods  knew  it ;  and  that  the 
torment  which  gnawed  day  and  night  at  then*  hearts, 
was  felt  by  them  to  be  a  punishment  inflicted  by  the 
immortal  gods."  It  may  farther  be  remarked  that  in 
the  treatise  of  this  author,  on  the  Nature  of  the  Gods, 
the  object  is  no  other  J)ut  to  prove  and  justify  a 
superintending  providence  of  the  deities  ;  and  I  need 
not  inform  the  classic  reader  with  what  success  he 
executed  the  task.  But  it  is  needless  to  cite  author- 
ities in  proof  of  a  subject  which,  as  soon  as  the  gods 
are  admitted  into  the  religious  creeds  of  mankind, 
must  be  deemed  self-evident.  For  on  no  other  prin- 
ciple can  the  universal  institution  of  sacrificial  rites 
and  ritual  observances,  as  the  most  natural  and  ap- 
propriate forms  of  divine  worship,  be  accounted  for, 
but  upon  that  of  an  undying  conviction  that  the 
celestial  powers  take  a  decided  and  unceasing  inter- 
est in  human  affairs ;  that  human  happiness  or  mis- 
ery depends  on  their  instrumentality ;  and  that  all 
natural  religion,  together  with  all  its  various  phases 
and  expressions ;  its  faith,  its  hopes,  and  its  fears, 
owes  its  origin  and  perpetuity  to  there  cognition  of 
this  momentous  truth.  To  this  day,  the  Delay 
Lama  of  Thibet,  believed  to  be  the  incarnation  of 
Fo,  is  worshipped  not  only  by  the  Thibetans,  but 
also  by  a  great  part  of  Tartary,  under  the  firm  per- 
suasion of  his  zealous  votaries  that  he  blesses  the 
present  and  reveals  the  future  to  them ;  and  that  in 
all  things,  he  controls  their  destiny  by  his  providen- 
tial supervision.  Hence  it  is  that  they  fall  prostrate 
before  the  embodied  god  and  kiss  him,  papal-like, 
with  all  the  marks  of  a  profound  veneration. 

9 


98  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,   ETC. 

If  we  take  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  sub- 
ject under  discussion,  it  will  resolve  itself  into  the 
important  proposition,  that  the  gods  being  virtually 
the  symbolical  representations  of  the  effects  and  phe- 
nomena of  the  laws  and  causations  of  the  universe, 
and  these  being  the  result  of  the  creative  wisdom 
and  energy  of  the  God  of  gods,  and  constituting 
Divine  Providence,  it  follows  that  the  faith  of  the 
heathens,  attributing  providential  government  of  the 
world  and  of  mankind  to  the  gods,  was  based  upon 
eternal  truth.  Hence  of  Jehovah  —  the  great  original 
of  all,  and  of  Jove  —  the  putative  father  of  the 
gods,  we  may  say  in  the  expressive  language  of 
Virgil,  "Omnia  plena;"  or  in  that  of  the  bard  of 
Twickenham,  — 

"  All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul ; 
That,  chang'd  through  all,  and  yet  in  all  the  same ; 
Great  in  the  earth,  as  in  th'  ethereal  frame  ; 
Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees; 
Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent; 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent : 
Breathes  in  our  soul,  informs  our  mortal  part, 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  a  hair  as  heart ; 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  vile  man  that  mourns, 
As  the  rapt  seraph  that  adores  and  burns : 
To  him,  no  high,  no  low,  no  great,  no  small : 
He  fills,  he  bounds,  connects,  and  equals  all.' 


SECTION    VII. 

THE  ORACLES,  DIVINATIONS  OR  AUGURIES,  AND  ARUSPICY 
OF  HEATHENISM,  AND    THE   FUTURE   JUDGMENT  OR  RE- 
WARDS AND  PUNISHMENT  DISPENSED  BY  THE  GODS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    ORACLES,  DIVINATIONS  OR   AUGURIES,  AND  ARUSPICY 

OF    HEATHENISM. 

Of  all  the  ancient  oracles,  those  of  Apollo  at 
Delphi,  and  of  Jupiter  Amnion  in  the  Lybian 
desert,  were  the  most  celebrated.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  Herodotus,  the  origin  of  oracles  is  to  be 
traced  to  the  prolific  soil  of  Egypt,  where,  also, 
the  theogony  or  generation  of  the  gods,  seems  to 
have  flourished  in  the  most  unbounded  luxuriance. 
"  The  two  oracles  of  Egyptian  Thebes  and  of  Do- 
dona,"  says  he,  "  have  entire  resemblance  to  each 
other.  The  art  of  divination,  as  now  practised  in 
our  temples,  is  thus  derived  from  Egypt ;  at  least  the 
Egyptians  were  the  first  who  introduced  the  sacred 
festivals,  processions,  and  supplications,  and  Irom 
them  the  Greeks  were  instructed."  *     It  appears,  also, 

*Beloe. 

(99) 


100  THE    HEATHEN   RELIGION 

from  the  same  author,  that  the  first  oracle  in  Greece 
was  founded  at  Dodona,  by  a  priestess  of  the 
Theban  Jupiter,  who  had  been  carried  off  by  Phoe- 
nician pirates,  and  sold  into  that  country.  u  Her 
attendance  on  the  temple,"  writes  Gillies,  "  had 
taught  her  some  of  the  arts  by  which  this  pretension 
was  maintained.  She  chose  the  dark  shade  of  a 
venerable  oak  ;  delivered  mysterious  answers  to  the 
admiring  multitude  ;  her  reputation  increased ;  suc- 
cess gained  her  associates  ;  a  temple  rose  to  Jupiter, 
and  was  surrounded  by  houses  for  his  ministers." 
To  this  it  may  be  added,  that  not  only  shrines  which 
attested  the  skill  of  human  art,  but  also  groves,  grot- 
tos, and  caverns,  were  the  favorite  resorts  of  oracu- 
lar responses  ;  and  that  in  a  short  time,  after  the 
introduction  of  the  first  tripod  into  northern  Greece, 
the  spirit  of  vaticination  rapidly  spread  over  vari- 
ous provinces  inhabited  by  the  Hellenic  race. 

After  these  remarks,  we  again  listen  to  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  historian  of  "  Ancient  Greece,"  who  thus 
continues :  "  During  the  heroic  ages,  indeed,  as  illus- 
trious and  pious  men  believed  themselves,  on  impor- 
tant occasions,  honored  with  the  immediate  presence 
and  advice  of  their  heavenly  protectors,  the  secon- 
dary information  of  priests  and  oracles  was  less  gen- 
erally regarded  and  esteemed.  But  in  proportion  as 
the  belief  ceased  that  the  gods  appeared  in  human 
form,  or  the  supposed  visits  at  least  of  these  celestial 
beings  seemed  less  frequent  and  familiar,  the  office 
of  priests  became  more  important  and  respectable, 
and  the  confidence  in  oracles  continuallv  gained 
ground.  At  length  these  admired  institutions,  being 
considered  as  the  chief  and  almost  only  mode   of 


IX   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  101 

communication  with  supernatural  powers,  acquired 
a  degree  of  influence  calculated  to  control  every 
principle  of  authority,  whether  civil  or  sacred." 
Speaking  of  the  Delphian  oracle,  which  enjoyed  the 
protection  and  superintendence  of  the  Amphictyonic 
council,*  he  adds :  "  But  the  inhabitants  of  Delphi, 
who,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  were  the  original 
proprietors  of  the  oracle,  always  continued  to  direct 
the  religious  ceremonies,  and  to  conduct  the  impor- 
tant business  of  prophecy.  It  was  their  province 
alone  to  determine  at  what  time  and  on  what  occa- 
sion, the  Pythia  should  mount  the  sacred  tripod,  to 
receive  the  prophetic  steams,f  by  which  she  com- 
municated with  Apollo.  When  overflowing  with 
the  heavenly  inspiration,  she  uttered  the  confused 
words,  or  rather  frantic  sounds,  irregularly  suggested 
by  the  impulse  of  the  god ;  the  Delphians  collected 
these    sounds,   reduced   them   into    order,  animated 


*  The  celebrated  council  of  the  Amphictyons  was  originally 
composed  of  twelve  persons,  who  represented  the  Grecian  States. 
They  generally  met  twice  every  year  at  Delphi,  though  some- 
times they  convened  at  Thermopylae.  The  object  of  their  institu- 
tion was  to  adjudicate  in  all  cases  of  dissension  or  grievances, 
which  might  arise  between  the  different  States  of  Greece.  Their 
decisions  were  universally  esteemed  sacred  and  inviolable. 

f  These  prophetic  steams  were  sulphureous  vapors,  emitted 
from  the  crevices  of  a  profound  cavern  within  the  temple,  over 
which  the  priestess  called  Pythia,  sat  bare  on  a  three-legged  stool, 
known  as  the  tripod.  These  vapors  powerfully  affected  the  brain, 
and  were  deemed  to  be  the  sure  and  hallowed  media  of  divine  in- 
spiration. The  oracles  of  Greece  were  usually  delivered  in 
hexameter  verse,  and  as  the  origin  of  this  poetic  measure  was  as- 
cribed to  the  Delphian  Apollo,  it  was  also  called  the  theological 
or  Pythian  metre.  —  G. 

9* 


102  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

them  with  sense,  and  adorned  them  with  har- 
mony, etc." 

Gibbon  charges  the  ancient  oracles  with  a  public 
conviction  of  deceit  and  fraud,  and  adds  with  evi- 
dent delight,  that  Constantine  the  Great  imposed 
upon  them  an  ignominious  silence  ;  but  while  this 
accomplished  historian  condemns  the  vices,  he  for- 
gets to  be  just  to  the  virtues  of  this  venerable  insti- 
tution. Without  presuming  to  ignore  its  inherent 
defects  or  ultimate  corruptions,  I  shall  briefly  notice 
its  benign  influence  on  human  society  as  it  has  been 
portrayed  by  the  candid  and  judicious  Politz,  in  his 
admirable  Weltgeschichte.  "  The  oracles  which  ex- 
ercised so  important  an  influence  in  Greece,  espec- 
ially during  the  first  periods  of  civilization,"  says 
he,  "  not  unfrequently  guided  public  opinion  and  the 
spirit  of  national  enterprise,  with  distinguished  wis- 
dom. Preeminent  among  the  rest,  the  oracle  at 
Delphi  enjoyed  a  world-wide  renown ;  and  there  it 
was  that  the  wealth  and  the  treasures  of  more  than 
one  continent,  were  concentrated.  Its  responses  re- 
vealed many  a  tyrant,  and  foretold  his  fate.  Many 
an  unhappy  being  was  saved  through  its  means,  or 
directed  by  its  counsel.  It  encouraged  useful  insti- 
tutions, and  communicated  the  discoveries  in  art-  or 
science  under  the  sanction  of  a  divine  authority. 
And  lastly,  by  its  doctrines  and  example,  it  caused 
the  moral  law  to  be  kept  holy,  and  civil  rights  to  be 
respected." 

M.  Mallet,  in  his  "  Northern  Antiquities,"  speak- 
ing of  the  addictedness  of  the  Scandinavians  to  divi- 
nation, auguries,  etc.,  thus  proceeds :  "  They  had 
oracles,  like   the   people  of  Italy  and   Greece,  and 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  103 

these  oraSles  were  not  less  revered,  nor  less  famous 
than  theirs.  It  was  generally  believed,  either  that 
the  gods  and  goddesses,  or,  more  commonly,  that 
the  three  destinies,  whose  names  I  have  given  else- 
where, delivered  out  these  oracles  in  their  temples. 
That  of  Upsal  was  as  famous  for  its  oracles  as  its 
sacrifices.  There  were  also  celebrated  ones  in  Dalia, 
a  province  of  Sweden  ;  in  Norway  and  Denmark." 
"  It  was,"  says  Saxo  the  Grammarian,  "  a  custom 
with  the  ancient  Danes  to  consult  the  oracles  of  the 
Parcse,  concerning  the  future  destiny  of  children 
newly  born.  Accordingly  Fridleif,  being  desirous  to 
know  that  of  his  son  Olaus,  entered  into  the  temple 
of  the  gods  to  pray  ;  and,  being  introduced  into  the 
sanctuary,  he  saw  thre.e  goddesses  upon  so  many 
seats.  The  first,  who  was  of  a  beneficent  nature, 
granted  the  infant  beauty  and  the  gift  of  pleasing. 
The  second  gave  him  a  noble  heart.  But  the  third, 
who  was  envious  and  spiteful,  to  spoil  the  work  of 
her  sisters,  imprinted  on  him  the  stain  of  covetous- 
ness." 

It  should  seem  that  the  idols  or  statues  of  the  gods 
and  goddesses  delivered  these  oracles  viva  voce.  In 
an  ancient  Icelandic  chronicle  we  read  of  one  Indria, 
who  went  from  home  to  wait  for  Thorstein,  his  en- 
emy. "  Thorstein,"  says  the  author,  "  upon  his  arri- 
val, entered  into  the  temple.  In  it  was  a  stone,  cut 
probably  into  a  statue,  which  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  worship  ;  he  prostrated  himself  before  it, 
and  prayed  to  it  —  to  inform  him  of  his  destiny. 
Indria,  who  stood  without,  heard  the  stone  chant 
forth  these  verses :  '  It  is  for  the  last  time,  it  is  with 
feet  drawing  near  to  the  grave,  that  thou  art  come  to 


104  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

* 

this  place  :  for  it  is  most  certain,  that,  before  the  sun 
ariseth,  the  valiant  Indria  shall  make  thee  feel  his 
hatred. '  "  The  people  persuaded  themselves,  some- 
times, that  these  idols  answered  by  a  gesture  or  a 
nod  of  the  head,  which  signified  that  they  hearkened 
to  the  prayers  of  their  supplicants. 

To  remove  the  veil  which  hides  our  vision  from 
the  future,  has  been  attempted  with  more  or  less 
success  in  all  ages  of  the  world ;  and  therefore  the 
propensity  to  pry  into  the  lap  of  time,  contemplated 
as  one  of  the  faculties  of  the  human  mind,  comes 
recommended  to  us  under  the  sanction  of  God.  To 
regard  or  deride  it  as  the  corrupt  offspring  and  lin- 
gering remains  of  a  superstitious  age,  and  hastily  to 
condemn  it  as  unworthy  a  sober  investigation,  would 
be  as  unphilosophical  as  it  is  wrong.  That  there  has 
been  true  prophecy,  not  one  that  believes  in  the  in- 
spired word  of  the  Almighty,  will  presume  to  deny  ; 
and  hence  vaticination  in  its  nobler  and  more  perfect 
form  at  least,  has  been  legitimated  by  Divine  appro- 
val. Zwinglius,  the  Swiss  reformer,  attested  the 
comprehensiveness  of  his  faith  in  the  providence  of 
the  Supreme  Being,  in  the  cosmopolitan  doctrine  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  entirely  excluded  from  the 
more  worthy  portion  of  the  heathen  world.  Admit- 
ting its  truth,  we  cannot  easily  conceive  a  valid  reason 
why  a  heathen  thus  favored,  should  not  be  capable 
of  true  prophecy.  Balaam  was  a  noted  diviner  and 
a  heathen,  and  yet  his  predictions  concerning  the 
Israelites  were  verified.  And  he  can  by  no  means 
be  considered  as  one  of  the  best  specimens  of  hea- 
thenism, yet  the  son  of  Beor,  as  the  history  of  the 
case  clearly  shows,  evidently  acted  under  a  divine 


IN    ITS    POPULAR    DEVELOPMENT.  105 

impulse."  By  the  art  of  necromancy,  the  witch  at 
End  or  pretended  to  reveal  future  events,  and  as  far 
as  Saul  is  concerned,  her  revelation  was  sadly  ac- 
complished. This  is  certainly  a  singular  phenome- 
non in  the  Jewish  theocracy,  and  the  prophetic 
element  which  it  contained,  may  be  explained  by 
supposing  that  this  artful  woman  in  the  guise  of 
Samuel,  made  a  happy  guess,  or  that  God  for  some 
wise  purpose,  converted  her  execrable  art  to  his  own 
interest ;  though  it  cannot  be  denied  that  such  a  sup- 
position involves  a  suspension  or  a  violation  of  his 
own  laws  on  kako-magia. 

In  respect  to  augury  and  aruspicy,  it  is  not  to  be 
imagined  that  the  priests  who  presided  over  these 
branches  of  the  polytheistic  creed,  when  society  had 
attained  a  high  state  of  civilization,  any  longer  seri- 
ously believed  that  the  flight  of  a  bird,  the  cackling 
of  a  hen,  or  the  viscera  of  a  beast,  could  foreshadow 
future  events.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  safely 
asserted  that  these  divinative  arts,  so  well  calculated 
to  inspire  awe  and  homage  in  the  breasts  of  the  mul- 
titude, were  used  at  least  to  a  considerable  extent  as 
pedagogical  vehicles,  sanctified  by  time  and  opinion, 
and  through  which  reason  and  religion  declared  the 
result  of  their  experience  and  observations.  The 
term  augur  denotes  a  soothsayer  or  diviner,  and 
means  one  that  judges  of  the  will  of  the  gods  as  it 
regards  impending  or  future  events  from  the  obser- 
vations made  on  various  objects  and  phenomena  in 
nature,  according  to  certain  augurial  laws.  Ken- 
nett  derives  it  either  from  the  motion  and  actions,  or 
the  chirping  and  chattering  of  birds.  There  were 
different  kinds  of  augury,  which  are  founded  either 


106  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

on  the  observations  of  the  heavens ;  of  various  birds 
and  beasts  —  oidnistike  and  zoo-manteia ;  and,  lastly,' 
of  the  usual  incidents  of  life.  If  a  thundergust 
arose,  the  augur  took  notice  whether  it  came  from 
the  right  or  the  left  hand,  according  to  the  four  tem- 
pla  or  quarters  into  which  the  heavens  were  divided 
for  the  use  of  this  art ;  whether  the  number  of 
strokes  were  even  or  odd,  etc.  So  important  was 
this  species  of  augury  deemed  to  be,  that  only  the 
master  of  the  augurial  college  could  take  it.  When 
beasts,  either  wild  or  tame,  constituted  the  subject 
of  augury,  it  was  of  importance  to  observe  whether 
they  appeared  in  a  strange  place,  crossed  the  road, 
or  ran  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  side  of  their  line  of 
progression.  The  omens  taken  from  the  flight  or  the 
notes  of  birds,  decided  nothing  unless  they  were  con- 
firmed by  a  repetition  of  the  token.  Besides,  the 
sneezing  or  stumbling  of  a  person;  the  hearing  of 
mysterious  voices  or  seeing  of  apparitions  by  him ; 
the  falling  of  salt  upon  the  table  or  the  spilling  of 
wine  upon  one's  clothes,  etc.,  were  serious  subjects 
for  augurial  prognostication,  even  among  a  people 
whose  senators  clothed  in  their  robes  of  state,  and 
sitting  in  silent  majesty  in  the  forum,  the  ancient 
Gauls  took  to  be  gods !  Domestic  fowls  were 
especially  kept  for  the  benefit  of  this  important  pro- 
fession, and  the  manner  in  which  they  took  or 
refused  then  food,  determined  the  prosperous  or  ad- 
verse character  of  the  omen,  and  might  hasten  or 
suspend  the  downfall  of  an  empire.*     Ophi-manteia 

*  Beloe  on  Herodotus  remarks  :  "  Some  birds  furnished  omens 
from  their  chattering,  as  crows,  owls,  etc. ;  others  from  the  direc- 


IN   ITS   POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.  107 

was  also  embraced  in  the  category  of  the  augur's 
duties,  as  it  appears  from  the  following  passage  in 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  thus  rendered  by  Dryden :  — 

'  At  Aulis,  with  united  powers,  they  meet ; 
But  there,  cross  winds  or  calms  detain'd  the  fleet. 
Now,  while  they  raise  an  altar  on  the  shore, 
And  Jove  with  solemn  sacrifice  adore, 
A  boding  sign  the  priests  and  people  see : 
A  snake  of  size  immense  ascends  a  tree, 
And  inHhc  leafy  summit  spied  a  nest, 
Which  o'er  her  callow  young  a  sparrow  prcss'd ; 
Eight  were  the  birds,  unfledged  ;  their  mother  flew 
And  hover'd  round  her  care,  but  still  in  view, 
Till  the  fierce  reptile  first  devour'd  the  brood ; 
Then  seiz'd  the  fluttering  dam,  and  drank  her  blood. 
This  dire  ostcnt  the  fearful  people  view ; 
Calchas  alone,  by  Phoebus  taught,  foreknew 
What  heaven  decreed ;  and  with  a  smiling  glance, 
Thus  gratulates  to  Greece  her  happy  chance : 
:  Oh  Argives,  we  shall  conquer ;  Troy  is  ours, 
But  long  delays  shall  first  afflict  our  powers  ; 
Nine  years  of  labor  the  nine  birds  portend, 
The  tenth  shall  in  the  town's  destruction  end.' " 

The  aruspices  had  their  name  from  looking  upon 
the  altars  —  ab  aris  aspiciendis.  The  ominose  art 
which  they  practised,  was    designated  by  the  term 


tion  in  which  they  flew,  as  eagles,  vultures,  hawks,  etc.  An  eagle 
seen  to  the  right  was  fortunate.  The  sijjht  of  an  ea^le  was  sup- 
posed  to  foretell  to  Tarquinius  Priscus  that  he  should  obtain  the 
crown ;  it  predicted,  also,  the  conquests  of  Alexander ;  and  the 
loss  of  their  dominions  to  Tarquin  the  Proud,  and  Dionysius,  the 
tyrant  of  Syracuse.  A  raven  seen  on  the  left  hand  was  unfortu- 
nate — 

Ssepe  sinistra  cava  prcedixit  ab  ilice  comix.  —  Virgil." 


108  THE    HEATHEN   RELIGION 

aruspicy.  The  laws  of  this  species  of  prognostica- 
tion demanded  an  investigation  of  the  following 
subjects  :  First,  the  sacrificial  victims  before  they 
were  cut  up  ;  secondly,  the  entrails  of  those  victims 
after  they  were  cut  up  —  extispicia ;  thirdly,  the 
flame  and  smoke  of  the  fire  over  which  they  were 
consumed  —  puramanteia  and  kapnomanteia ;  and 
fourthly,  the  flour  or  bran,  frankincense,  wine,  and 
water,  used  in  the  sacrifice,  and  the  taste,  smell, 
color,  and  quantity  of  which,  was  to  be  carefully 
ascertained  and  accurately  balanced.  The  science 
of  augury  and  aruspicy  is  of  so  ancient  a  date  that 
mythology  has  not  hesitated  to  trace  its  origin  to 
Tages,  a  grandson  of  Jupiter,  who  it  is  affirmed  was 
the  first  who  taught  it  to  the  Etrurians.  It  is  said 
that  Tages  was  found  by  Tuscan  ploughmen  in  the 
form  of  a  clod,  when  gradually  assuming  the  shape 
and  faculties  of  a  perfect  man,  he  began  to  foretell 
the  future  ;  a  fact  to  which  Ovid  thus  alludes  :  — 

"  And,  Tages  named  by  natives  of  the  place, 
Taught  arts  prophetic  to  the  Tuscan  race." 

The  ancient  Scandinavians  had  diviners  of  both 
sexes,  who  bore  the  name  of  prophets,  and  as  such 
were  the  objects  of  profound  reverence.  Some  of 
them  were  said  to  have  familiar  spirits  who  never 
left  them,  and  whom  they  consulted  under  the  form 
of  little  idols ;  others  dragged  the  ghosts  of  the  de- 
parted from  their  tombs,  and  forced  the  dead  to  tell 
them  what  would  happen :  the  Skalds  or  bards  pre- 
tended to  possess  the  power  —  through  the  means  of 
certain  songs,  to  be  able  to  communicate  with  the 
dead,  and  to  interrogate  the  past  or  reveal  the  future 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  109 

for  the  benefit  of  the  living.  The  Runic  characters 
of  these  people  were  employed  as  the  most  potent 
media  to  presage  future  events,  and  augury  and 
aruspicy  in  their  various  ramifications,  had  attained 
among  them  to  the  rank  and  influence  of  a  sacred 
mystery,  full  of  deep  significance,  and  the  certain  in- 
terpreters of  destiny.  "  There  were  letters,  or  Runes," 
writes  Mallet,  translated  by  Bishop  Percy,  "  to  procure 
victory  — .to  preserve  from  prison  —  to  relieve  women 
in  labor  —  to  cure  bodily  diseases  —  to  dispel  evil 
thoughts  from  the  mind  —  to  dissipate  melancholy  — 
and  to  soften  the  severity  of  a  cruel  mistress.  They 
employed  pretty  nearly  the  same  characters  for  all 
these  different  purposes,  but  they  varied  the  order 
and  combination  of  the  letters ;  they  wrote  them 
either  from  right  to  left,  or  from  top  to  bottom,  or  in 
form  of  a  circle,  or  contrary  to  the  course  of  the  sun, 
etc.  I  have  already  remarked  that  they  had  often 
no  other  end,  in  sacrificing  human  victims,  than  to 
know  what  was  to  happen  by  inspection  of  their  en- 
trails, by  the  effusion  of  their  blood,  and  by  the 
greater  or  less  degree  of  celerity  with  which  they 
sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the  water.  The  same  motive 
engaged  them  to  lend  an  attentive  ear  to  the  singing 
of  birds,  which  some  diviners  boasted  a  power  of 
interpreting,  etc." 

The  Druids  of  Britain  had  the  seat  of  their  arus- 
picial  mysteries  in  the  sombre  gloom  of  consecrated 
groves.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  them  that  they  sac- 
rificed the  prisoners  of  war  and  the  sacred  victims  ; 
and  that  they  foretold  the  course  of  future  events 
from  the  course  which  the  crimson  current  assumed 
around  the  reeking   altars.     According  to   Tacitus, 

10 


110  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  rude  and  warlike  sires  of  the  Germanic  people, 
must  have  been  rare  adepts  in  the  mystic  rites  of 
divination.  "  Their  attention  to  auguries,  and  the 
practice  of  divining  by  lot,"  says  he,  "  is  conducted 
with  a  degree  of  superstition  not  excelled  by  any 
other  nation.  Their  mode  of  proceeding  by  lots 
is  wonderfully  simple.  The  branch  of  a  fruit-tree  is 
cut  into  small  pieces,  which,  being  all  distinctly 
marked,  are  thrown  at  random  on  a  white  garment. 
If  a  question  of  public  interest  be  pending,  the  priest 
of  the  canton  performs  the  ceremony  ;  if  it  be 
nothing  more  than  a  private  concern,  the  master  of  , 
the  family  officiates.  With  fervent  prayers  offered 
up  to  the  gods,  his  eyes  devoutly  raised  to  heaven, 
he  holds  up  three  times  each  segment  of  a  twig,  and 
as  the  marks  rise  in  succession,  interprets  the  de- 
crees of  fate.  If  appearances  prove  unfavorable, 
there  ends  all  consultation  for  that  day :  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  chances  are  propitious,  they  require, 
for  greater  certainty,  the  sanction  of  auspices.  The 
well-known  superstition,  which  in  other  countries 
consults  the  flight  and  notes  of  birds,  is  also  estab- 
lished in  Germany ;  but  to  receive  intimation  of 
future  events  from  horses,  is.  the  peculiar  credulity 
of  the  country.*  For  this  purpose  a  number  of 
milk-white  steeds,  unprofaned  by  mortal  labor, 
is  constantly  maintained  at  public  expense,  and 
placed  to  pasture  in  the  religious  groves.  When 
occasion  requires,  they  are  harnessed  to  a  sacred 
chariot,  and  the  priest,  accompanied  by  the  king,  or 
chief  of  the   State,   attends   to  watch  the  motions 

*  This  is  an  error,  as  the  sequel  of  this  chapter  will  show.  —  G. 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  Ill 

and  the  neighing  of  the  horses.  No  other  mode  of 
augury  is  received  with  such  implicit  faith  by  the 
people,  the  nobility,  and  the  priesthood.  The  horses, 
upon  these  solemn  occasions,  are  supposed  to  be  the 
organs  of  the  gods,  and  the  priests  their  favored  in- 
terpreters. They  have  still  another  way  of  prying 
into  futurity,  to  which  they  have  recourse,  when 
anxious  to  know  the  issue  of  an  important  war. 
They  seize,  by  any  means  in  their  power,  a  captive 
from  the  adverse  nation,  and  commit  him  in  single 
combat  with  a  champion  selected  from  their  own 
army.  Each  is  provided  with  weapons  after  the 
manner  of  his  country,  and  the  victory,  wherever  it 
falls,  is  deemed  a  sure  prognostic  of  the  event."  * 

Caesar  informs  us  that  among  the  Gauls,  animated 
already  at  that  early  age,  it  may  be  presumed,  by  a 
spirit  of  inherent  gallantry,  the  matrons  of  the  family 
assumed  the  duty  and  enjoyed  the  honor,  of  illustrat- 
ing and  denning  the  future  by  die  or  lot.  Among 
the  Persians,  horses  generally  were  deemed  sacred  to 
the  sun,  but  white  horses  especially  were  held  in  the 
highest  estimation,  and  treated  with  the  most  delicate 
care,  as  the  peculiar  favorites  of  the  deity.  To  the 
neighing  of  his  horse,  brought  about  by  a  trick  of 
his  groom,  Darius  owed  his  elevation  to  the  Persian 
throne.  Thunder  in  winter,  and  earthquakes  at  any 
season  of  the  year,  the  Scythians  taught  to  be  omi- 
nous. "  They  have  among  them,"  writes  the  father 
of  history,  "  a  great  number  who  practise  the  art  of 
divination ;  for  this  purpose  they  use  a  number  of 
willow  twigs,  in  this  manner  :  they  bring  large  bun- 


*  Murphy,  translator  Taciti. 


112  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

dies  of  these  together,  and  having  united  them, 
dispose  them  one  by  one  on  the  ground,  each  bundle 
at  a  distance  from  the  rest.  This  done,  they  pretend 
to  foretell  the  future,  during  which  they  take  up  the 
bundles  separately,  and  tie  them  again  together. 
This  mode  of  divination  is  hereditary  among  them. 
The  enaries,  or  "  effeminate  men,"  affirm  that  the  art 
of  divination  was  taught  them  by  the  goddess  Ve- 
nus. They  take,  also,  the  leaves  of  the  lime-tree, 
which  dividing  into  three  parts,  they  twine  round 
their  fingers  ;  they  then  unbind  it,  and  exercise  the 
art  to  which  they  pretend."  * 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  FUTURE   JUDGMENT    OR   REWARDS    AND   PUNISHMENTS 
DISPENSED    BY   THE    GODS. 

I  have  now  to  request  as  a  particular  favor,  that 
the  reader  will  accompany  me  across  the  Stygian 
lake,  as  there  are  some  eminent  personages  in  the 
dismal  place  just  beyond  it,  whose  character  and 
functions  demand  a  closer  scrutiny.  A  small  fee 
for  Charon,  the  ferryman,  and  a  little  courage,  are 
the  only  preliminaries  which  are  necessary  on  the 
present  occasion,  to  insure  a  safe  passage;  but 
should  a  defunct  ghost  desire  to  enter  into  the  lower 

*  Beloe. 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  113 

regions,  he  must  take  the  precaution  to  be  first 
buried,  otherwise  he  will  be  doomed  to  wander  about 
the  shores  of  Hades  during  a  whole  centenary  period 
of  time,  before  he  can  be  allowed  an  entrance  into 
the  palace  of  Pluto :  this  curious  fact  sufficiently  ac- 
counts for  the  existence  of  the  many  apparitions 
which  have  always  disturbed  the  fancy  and  alarmed 
the  fears  of  the  credulous  !  The  kingdom  of  hell  is 
governed  by  his  royal  majesty  Pluto,  a  son  of  Sat- 
urn and  Ops,  and  includes  within  its  ample  limits 
the  whole  subterranean  world.  Its  entrance  is 
through  the  Avernian  cave,  near  Syracuse,  in  Sicily. 
It  was  here  where  Pluto  descended  to  his  shadowy 
realm,  bearing  with  him  the  fair  Proserpine  as  the 
prize  of  his  successful  gallantry;  and  it  was  here 
whither  the  people  of  Syracuse  resorted  to  commem- 
orate the  daring  event,  in  the  observance  of  annual 
festivals,  in  which  multitudes  of  both  sexes  par- 
ticipated. Here,  too,  it  was  whence,  according  to 
Virgil,  iEneas  and  the  Sibyl  set  out  on  their 
sub-mundane  excursion*  The  usual  tenebricose 
ensigns  of  majesty  which  distinguish  Pluto,  are  a 
key  instead  of  a  sceptre,  and  an  ebony  crown.  His 
horses  and  chariot  are  black  as  night.  When  the 
dead  have  once  arrived  in  his  uninviting  dominions, 
the  gates  are  locked,  and  regress  into  life  is  impossi- 
ble. 

This    awful   divinity   bears    various    cognomens, 

*  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  regarded  the  crater  of.  Mount  iEtna 
as  the  outer  gate  of  Hades.  The  same  honor  has  been  conferred 
on  Hekla,  by  north-European  authors.  The  ancient  Persians 
located  it  in  Okesra,  a  region  celebrated  for  its  innumerable  jets 
of  naphtha  everywhere  bounding  forth  in  spontaneous  combustion. 

10* 


11  1  THE   H8ATHXV   RELIGION 

which  either  denote  the  nature  of  his  functions  or 
the  attributes  of  his  empire.  He  is  called  Pluto,  on 
account  of  the  wealth  which  lies  hidden  in  the  bow- 
els of  the  earth;  Hades,  in  consequence  of  the 
gloomy  and  melancholy  appearance  of  his  abode,  or 
because  he  sits  in  darkness  and  obscurity,  and  is 
invisible  to  his  airy  subjects;  Agesilaus,  for  he  con- 
ducts mortals  to  the  infernal  regions;  Orcus,  inas- 
much as  he  hastens  the  decay  and  death  of  mankind, 
or  brings  up  the  rear  in  the  last.  Bad  moments  of 
their  lives;  and  Summanus,  from  the  fact  thai  he  is 
the  chief  of  all  the  deities  in  the  Stygian  territories, 
and  principal  governor  of  the  departed  spirits.  Life 
and  death  are  in  the  hands  of  the  inexorable  god, 
and  he  prolongs  <>r  shortens  the  career  of  mortals, 
according  to  his  supreme  pleasure.  In  Hades,  crim- 
inal causes  continually  crowd  the  Bombre  tribunal  of 
the  stern   and   inflexible  dispensers  of  justice.     All 

wicked  persons   receive    llicir   exit    from  the  Btage   of 

time:  the  prelude  to  final  judgment,  from  the 
impartial  hands  of  Nona,  Decima,  and  Morta  — 
the  three  Fates,  thus  denominated  because  they 
control  the  past,  present,  and  future,  according  to 
fate,  which  Cicero  affirms,  implies  all  thai  lb  to 
happen  agreeably  to  the  decrees  of  God.  They 
also   respond    to   the   appellation   of   Pares,   either 

because  they  spare  no  person,  or  because  they  dis- 
tribute good  and  bad  gifts  to  man  ;i1  his  birth.  To 
their  delicate  lingers  the  fatal  thread  of  life  is 
officially  confided.  The  three  judges,  Minos,  Rhada- 
manthus,  and  iEcus,  unmoved  by  pity,  deaf  to 
bribes,  and  disregardful  of  the  distinctions  of  age, 
sex,  or  rank,  pass  sentence  of  condemnation  on  the 


IX    ITS    POPULAR    DEVELOPMENT.  115 

guilty  Bhades;  and  the  three  Furies  carry  it  into  ex- 
ecution. These  goddesses,  charged  with  such  impor- 
tant penal  functions,  are  frightful  beings;  for  though 
thcv  have  the  fail  visages  of  women,  their  looks  and 
official  insignia  inspire  terror.  They  are  generally 
represented  with  a  grim  aspect,  bloody  garments, 
and  serpents  wreathing  around  their  heads  and  the 
upper  part  of  their  bodies.  They  hold  a  burning 
torch  in  one  hand,  and  a  whip  of  scorpions  in  the 
other,  while  dismay,  rage,  paleness,  and  death)  com- 
pose their  retinue  and  obey  their  behests. 

There  is  a  place  in  the  Plutonian  empire  which, 
as  Virgil  informs  us  in  the  JEneid,  teems  with  many 
rare  and  charming  natural  advantages,  and  display 
scenery  of  preternatural  loveliness:  abounding  every- 
where in  inexhaustible  sources  of  the  most  varied 
and  exquisite  delights;  and  which  is  known  as  the 
Elysium  or  Elysii  Campi,the  abode  or  the  fields  of 
the  blessed.4      It  might  be  presumed  that  all  those 


*  The  ancienta  were  far  from  being  unanimous  as  to  the  precise 
lity  of  the  Elysian  fields.  Some  taught  that  they  were  to  be 
sought  near  the  African  coast,  in  the  Atlantic  ocean,  among  a 
cluster  of  islands  which  they  designated  as  the  Fortunate;  ethers 
placed  them  La  the  island  of  Leuce,  in  the  Enxine  sea;  and 
Virgil,  as  a  good  Roman,  hesitated  not  to  point  out  Italy  as  the 
fittest  country  that  could  overlie  so  felicitous  a  spot.  The  poet 
Luciato  assigned  to  them  a  situation  near  the  moon,  but  Plutarch, 
more  orthodox  as  well  as  true  to  prescription,  was  content  to  find 
his  paradise  in  the  centre  of  the  earth.  In  one  thing,  however, 
all  agreed,  that  it  was  a  most  enchanting  region,  with  bowers  for- 
!■  green,  delightful  meadows,  and  pleasant  streams  ;  with  a 
balmy  air,  a  serene  sky,  and  a  salubrious  climate;  with  birds  con- 
tinually warbling  in  the  groves,  ami  a  heaven  illustrated  by  a 
more  glorious  sun  and  brighter  stars  than  the  similar  orbs  which 
illumine  the  path  of  mortals. 


116  THE  HEATHEN   RELIGION 

who  had  once  entered  this  ecstatic  abode,  where  the 
pleasures  of  the  soul  are  at  once  so  refined  and  so 
innocent,  and  where  happiness  is  apparently  so  com- 
plete, would  always  remain  in  it,  but  this,  according 
to  some  authors,  is  not  the  case.  In  process  of 
time  many  of  the  happy  spirits  must  return  upon  the 
the  earth,  and  pass  into  new  bodies  ;  and  that  they 
may  not  mourn  the  loss  of  their  blissful  state,  nor  re- 
coil from  the  miseries  which  await  them  in  this 
world,  from  the  bitter  recollections  of  a  past  life,  they 
drink  of  the  waters  of  Lethe,  one  of  the  rivers  of  hell.* 
The  metempsychosis  or  doctrine  of  the  transmigra- 
tion of  the  soul  into  different  bodies,  as  taught  by 
Pythagoras,  without  reference  to  its  Plutonian  or 
Elysian  existence,  which  the  Samian  philosopher 
seems  to  have  considered  as  the  mere  poetic  embel- 
lishments of  the  future  state,  is  thus  described  by 
Ovid,  in  the  language  of  Dryden :  — 

"  What  feels  the  body  when  the  soul  expires, 
By  time  corrupted,  or  consumed  by  fires  ? 
Nor  dies  the  spirit,  but  new  life  repeats 
In  other  forms,  and  only  changes  seats. 
Ev'n  I,  who  these  mysterious  truths  declare, 
Was  once  Euphorbus  in  the  Trojan  war ; 
My  name  and  lineage  I  remember  well, 
And  how  in  fight  by  Sparta's  king  I  fell. 
In  Argive  Juno's  fame  I  late  beheld 
My  buckler  hung  on  high,  and  own'd  my  former  shield. 
Then  death,  so  call'd,  is  but  old  matter  dress'd 
In  some  new  figure,  and  a  varied  vest : 


AnimiB,  quibus  altera  fato 


Corpora  debeutur,  Lethsei  ad  fluminis  undarn 

Securos  latices  et  longa  oblivia  potent.  —  VirgiUi  JEneis,  6. 


IN    ITS    POPULAR    DEVELOPMENT.  117 

Thus  all  things  are  but  alter'd,  nothing  dies ; 

And  here  and  there  theunbodied  spirit  flies, 

By  time,  or  force,  or  sickness  dispossess'd, 

And  lodges,  where  it  lights,  in  man  or  beast ; 

Or  hunts  without,  till  ready  limbs  it  finds, 

And  actuates  those  according  to  their  kind ; 

From  tenement  to  tenement  is  toss'd, 

The  soul  is  still  the  same,  the  figure  only  lost : 

And,  as  the  soften'd  wax  new  seals  receives, 

This  face  assumes,  and  that  impression  leaves ; 

Now  call'd  by  one,  now  by  another  name ; 

The  form  is  only  changed,  the  wax  is  still  the  same. 

So  death,  so  called,  ean  but  the  form  deface ; 

The  immortal  soul  flies  out  in  empty  space, 

To  seek  her  fortune  in  some  other  place. 

Then  let  not  piety  be  put  to  flight, 

To  please  the  taste  of  glutton  appetite ; 

But  suffer  inmate  souls  secure  to  dwell, 

Lest  from  their  seats  your  parents  you  expel ; 

With  rabid  hunger  feed  upon  your  kind, 

Or  from  a  beast  dislodge  a  brother's  mind."  * 


o 


Such  only  of  the  Elysian  inhabitants  who  were  dis- 
tinguished for  their  exalted  virtues,  were  exempt 
from  transmigration,  and  were  at  last  admitted  into 
the  society  of  the  gods,  while  their  idola  or  simulacra, 
according  to  the  fertile  fancy  of  the  poets,  continued 
to  reside  in  the  lower  regions.  The  ancient  Mex- 
icans, as  it  appears  from  the  statement  of  Kaiser, 
taught  the  existence  of  numerous  spirit-abodes,  into 
one  of  which  the  innocent  shades  of  children  were  re- 


*  Pythagoras  and  his  disciples  were  as  rigid  vegetarians  as 
the  most  orthodox  Hindoos,  or  the  strictest  members  of  the  Gra- 
hamite  school,  and  peremptorily  prohibited  the  use  of  animal 
food  as  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  humanity,  and  a  flagrant  outrage 
against  the  metcmpsychosial  destiny  of  the  soul.  —  G. 


118  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

ceived  ;  into  another,  —  the  sun,  the  valiant  and  illus- 
trious souls  of  heroes  ascended;  while  the  corrupt 
and  hideous  ghosts  of  the  wicked  were  doomed  to 
grovel  and  pine  in  subterranean  caverns.  Nine 
heavens  served  to  circumscribe  their  fanciful  visions 
and  ardent  dreams  of  future  bliss.*  The  Green- 
landers  were  contented  to  predicate  the  doctrine  of 
but  one  future  Eden,  which  they  located  in  the 
abyss  of  the  ocean,  and  to  which  skilful  fishermen 
alone  might  dare  to  aspire  with  the  confident  hope 
of  success.  The  relentless  martial  spirit  of  the  Ap- 
palachian Indians,  proclaimed  itself  in  consigning 
their  cowardly  red  brethren  to  the  profound  chasms 
of  their  native  mountains,  where,  overwhelmed  by 
snow  and  ice,  they  fell  victims  to  the  tender  mercy 
of  shaggy  and  ferocious  bears.  The  aborigines  of 
America  were  unanimous  in  their  belief  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  a  happy  state  hereafter, 
somewhat  similar  to  the  Elysian  bliss  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans ;  but  of  a  Hades,  they  know  little  and 
speak  seldom,  and  the  savage-like  Appalachian  hell 
just  described,  is  one  of  the  remarkable  exceptions 
in  the  general  creed.  "  All,"  writes  Doctor  Robert- 
son, "  entertain  hopes  of  a  future  and  more  happy 
state,  where  they  shall  be  forever  exempt  from  the 


*  The  last  month  in  the  year  of  the  Mexican  aborigines,  was 
called  Izcalli,  which  we  are  told  by  Clavigero,  signifies  resurrec- 
tion, and  its  hieroglyphical  symbol  was  a  man  holding  a  child  by 
the  head.  The  hell  of  these  Indians  was  denominated  miction, 
from  mictlampa  —  the  north,  and  it  was  located  in  the  higher  re- 
gions of  the  northern  hemisphere :  the  place  of  destruction  and 
palingenesia  of  many  of  the  ancients.  —  G. 


IN   ITS   POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.  119 

calamities  which  embitter  human  life  in  its  present 
condition.  This  future  state  they  conceive  to  be  a 
delightful  country,  blessed  with  perpetual  spring, 
whose  forests  abound  with  game,  whose  rivers 
swarm  with  fish,  where  famine  is  never  felt,  and 
uninterrupted  plenty  shall  be  enjoyed  without  labor 
or  toil. 

But  as  men,  in  forming  their  first  imperfect 
ideas  concerning  the  invisible  world,  suppose  that 
there  they  shall  continue  to  feel  the  same  desires, 
and  to  be  engaged  in  the  same  occupations,  as  in 
the  present  world ;  they  naturally  ascribe  eminence 
and  distinction,  in  that  state,  to  the  same  qualities 
and  talents  which  are  here  the  objects  of  their 
esteem.  The  Americans,  accordingly,  allotted  the 
highest  place  in  their  country  of  spirits,  to  the  skilful 
hunter,  the  adventurous  and  successful  warrior,  and 
to  such  as  had  tortured  the  greatest  number  of  cap- 
tives, and  devoured  their  flesh.  These  notions  were 
so  prevalent,  that  they  gave  rise  to  a  universal  cus- 
tom, which  is,  at  once,  the  strongest  evidence  that 
the  Americans  believe  in  a  future  state,  and  the  best 
illustration  of  what  they  expect  there.  As  they  im- 
agine that  departed  spirits  begin  their  career  anew 
in  the  world  whither  they  are  gone,  that  their  friends 
may  not  enter  upon  it  defenceless  and  unprovided, 
they  bury  together  with  the  bodies  of  the  dead  their 
bow,  their  arrows,  and  other  weapons  used  in  hunt- 
ing or  war ;  they  deposit  in  their  tombs  the  skins  of 
stuffs  of  which  they  make  garments,  -  Indian  corn, 
manioc,  venison,  domestic  utensils,  and  whatever  is 
reckoned  among  the  necessaries  in  their  simple  mode 
of  life.     In  some  provinces,  upon  the  decease  of  a 


120  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

cazique  or  chief,  a  certain  number  of  his  wives,  of 
his  favorites,  and  of  his  slaves,  were  put  to  death, 
and  interred  together  with  him,  that  he  might  appear 
with  the  same  dignity  in  his  future  station,  and  be 
waited  upon  by  the  same  attendants.  This  persua- 
sion is  so  deep-rooted,  that  many  of  the  deceased 
person's,  retainers  offer  themselves  voluntary  victims, 
and  court  the  privilege  of  accompanying  their  de- 
parted masters,  as  a  high  distinction."  To  these 
graphic  and  faithful  delineations  of  a  creed,  strik- 
ingly characteristic  of  an  interesting  and  a  once 
numerous  race  of  people,  we  add  the  naive  and  pa- 
thetic effusions  of  Pope,  the  author  of  the  immortal 
production  —  the  Essay  on  Man,  on  the  same  attrac- 
tive subject:  — 

"  Lo  !  the  poor  Indian,  whose  untutor'd  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in  the  wind ; 
His  soul  proud  science  never  taught  to  stray 
Far  as  the  solar  walk,  or  milky-way; 
Yet  simple  nature  to  his  hope  has  giv'n, 
Behind  the  cloud-topt  hill,  an  humbler  heav'n, 
Some  safer  world  in  depth  of  woods  embrac'd, 
Some  happier  island  in  the  wat'ry  waste, 
Where  slaves  once  more  their  native  land  behold, 
No  fiends  torment,  no  Christians  thirst  for  gold ! 
To  be,  contents  his  natural  desire, 
He  asks  no  angel's  wing,  no  seraph's  fire ; 
But  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

The  feralia  was  a  festival  instituted  among 
the  ancient  Romans  in  honor  of  deceased  mortals, 
whose  object  was  to  alleviate  their  future  suffering 
while  it  entertained   them   with  festive  cheer.     "  It 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  121 

continued,"  writes  Smith,  in  his  "  Festivals,  Games, 
and  Amusements,"  "  for  eleven  days,  during  which 
time  presents  were  carried  to  the  graves  of  the  dead, 
whose  manes,  it  was  universally  believed,  came  and 
hovered  over  their  tombs,  and  feasted  upon  the  pro- 
visions which  had  been  placed  there  by  the  hand  of 
piety  and  affection.  It  was  also  believed  that  during 
this  period  they  enjoyed  rest  and  liberty,  and  a  suspen- 
sion from  their  punishment  in  the  infernal  regions." 
From  the  notion  of  the  Greeks  in  the  pre-Homeric 
ages  that  the  souls  of  deceased  warriors  delighted  in 
human  blood,  their  funeral  games  and  ceremonies 
were  often  of  the  most  cruel  description ;  and  hence 
we  find  that  to  revenge  and  appease  or  regale  the 
shade  of  his  friend  Patroclus,  Achilles  slew  twelve 
of  the  young  Trojan  nobility  at  his  funeral-pile* 

The  Persian  creed  of  a  future  state  and  retribution, 
next  deserves  our  careful  attention.  It  teaches  an 
intermediate  state  between  death  and  the  resurrec- 
tion, which  depends  for  its  degree  of  happiness  or 
utter  misery,  on  the  judicial  decision  of  Ormuzd, 
pronounced  upon  the  bridge  Tschinevad,  which 
divides  heaven  and  earth,  and  beneath  which,  is  the 
yawning  abyss  of  hell.  Prior  to  the  resurrection,  the 
soul,  according  to  its  desert,  is  either  admitted  into 
some  abode  of  bliss,  or  cast  into  torment,  where  it  is 
doomed  to  suffer  more  or  less  the  pains  of  condem- 
nation. The  antagonistic  empires  of  Ormuzd  and 
Ahriman,f  are  engaged  in   perpetual   warfare   with 


*  Smith. 

f  These  are  two  deities,  of  whom  the  former  is  of  a  beneficent, 
the  latter,  of  a  malevolent  nature,  and  the  same  originally  as  the 

11 


122  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

each  other,  but  after  the  lapse  of  twelve  thousand 
years — the  duration  of  the  world,  Ahriman  will  be 
vanquished  ;  the  empire  of  darkness,  converted  by 
Ormuzd  into  light,  cease ;  the  dead  raised  up ;  and 
he  who  has  made  all  things,  cause  the  earth  and  the 
sea  to  restore  again  the  remains  of  the  departed, 
when  Ormuzd  shall  clothe  them  with  flesh  and 
blood,  while  they  that  live  at  the  time  of  the  resur- 
rection, must  die  in  order  likewise  to  participate  in 
its  advantages.  Before  this  momentous  event  takes 
place,  three  illustrious  prophets  shall  appear,  who 
will  announce  their  presence  by  the  performance  of 
miracles.  During  this  period  of  its  existence,  and 
till  its  final  renewal,  the  earth  will  be  afflicted  with 
pestilence,  tempests,  war,  famine,  and  various  other 
baleful  calamities.  After  the  resurrection,  every  one 
will  be  apprised  of  the  good  or  evil  which  he  may 
have  done,  and  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  will  be 
separated  from  each  other.  Those  of  the  latter 
whose  offences  have  not  yet  been  expiated,  will  be 
again  cast  into  hell  during  the  term  of  three  days 
and  three  nights,  in  the  presence  of  an  assembled 


devil  or  satan  of  the  Jews  and  Christians.  Both  emanated  from 
Zeruane  Akerene',  the  Supreme  Being,  but  the  latter,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  envy  towards  the  former,  forfeited  his  primeval  pu- 
rity, and  was  condemned  by  Zeruane  Akerene  to  the  region  of 
darkness,  during'  the  space  of  twelve  thousand  years.  This  pe- 
riod of  punishment  has  its  basis  in  the  zodiac.  As  the  sun  passes 
through  the  twelve  zodiacal  signs  in  the  course  of  a  year,  and 
then  recommences  its  revolution  where  it  started  twelve  months 
ago ;  so  the  duration  of  the  world  is  calculated  at  a  thousand 
years  to  a -sign,  and  twelve  such  periods  as  the  limit  of  the  world, 
when  a  new  cosmic  order  of  things  will  be  ushered  into  existence. 


IX   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  123 

world,  in  order  to  be  purified  in  the  burning  streams 
of  liquid  ore.  After  this  they  enjoy  endless  {jelicity 
in  the  society  of  the  blessed,  and  the  pernicious  em- 
pire of  Ahriman  is  fairly  exterminated.  Even  this 
lying  spirit  will  be  under  the  necessity  to  avail  him- 
self of  this  fiery  ordeal,  and  made  to  rejoice  in  its 
expurgating  and  cleansing  efficacy.  Nay,  hell  itself 
is  purged  of  its  mephitic  impurities  and  washed 
clean  in  the  flames  of  a  universal  paliggenesia* 
The  earth  is  now  the  habitation  of  bliss  ;  all  nature 
glows  in  light;  and  the  equitable  and  benignant 
laws  of  Ormuzd  reign  supremely  throughout  the 
illimitable  universe.  Finally,  after  the  resurrection, 
mankind  will  recognize  each  other  again ;  wants, 
cares,  and  passions  will  cease ;  and  every  thing  in 
the  paradisian  and  all-embracing  empire  of  light, 
shall  redound  to  the  praises  of  the  beneficent  god 
Ormuzd.* 

In  the  religious  system  of  the  Hindoos,  Brahma 
and  Moisasur  correspond  to  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman 
among  the  Persians.  Like  their  distinguished  ana- 
logues, they  emanated  from  the  Supreme  Being, 
here  called  Parabrahma  ;  and  like  them,  the  former 
retained  by  his  goodness,  while  the  latter  forfeited  by 
his  wickedness,  his  original  holiness.  After  order  and 
harmony  had  reigned  for  a  long  time  in  the  super- 
nal world  of  spirits,  Moisasur  grew  envious  on 
account  of  Brahma's  splendor,  and,  backed  by  a 
great   number    of    inferior,    kindred   spirits,   refused 


*  Regeneration,  renovation,  or  restoration  of  all  things  to  its 
primordial  state. 
|P6litz. 


124  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

obedience  to  the  divine  laws.  In  vain  did  Brahma 
endeavor  to  reclaim  them :  they  began  to  wage  a 
war  of  extermination  against  the  good  spirits,  and 
Siva,  known  also  as  Chiven,  was  reluctantly  com- 
pelled to  eject  them  from  heaven,  and  hurl  them 
into  Onderah,  the  abyss  of  darkness.  Here  for- 
tunately they  repented  of  their  flagitious  deeds, 
and,  upon  the  intercession  of  the  three  superior  dei- 
ties, Brahma,  Vichnou  or  Yichnoo,  and  Siva,*  Para- 
brahma  resolved  to  provide  them  with  the  means 
of  redemption  from  their  wretched  condition.  Ac- 
cordingly he  doomed  them  to  pass  through  fifteen 
different  states  of  existence,  of  which  the  seven  low- 
est are  confined  to  various  kinds  of  animal  bodies, 
and  are  intended  as  chastisements  and  ameliorations. 
The  eighth  stage  of  metempsychosis  is  the  proba- 
tion in  a  human  body.  In  this  intermediate  state, 
the  fallen  spirits  have  an  opportunity  to  prepare 
themselves  for  the  higher  degrees  of  purification. 
Should  they,  however,  despise  the  dictates  of  reason, 
they  will  again  return  to  the  lowest  grade  of  being, 
and  be  obliged  to  begin  anew  the  critical  gyrations  of 
existence.  As  to  the  seven  superior  degrees  or  stages 
of  metempsychoses,  they  are  designed  for  the  com- 
plete expiation  and  restoration  of  the  unhappy  spirits. 


*  These  Hindoo  divinities  are  the  personifications  of  the  creative, 
the  preservative,  and  the  retributive  attributes  of  Parabrahma. 
They  constitute  the  Trimurti  or  Hindoo  trinity.  Metaphysically 
analyzed,  Brahma  is  the  unreflected  or  unevolved  proto^oneus 
state  of  divinity  —  the  Father ;  Vichnou,  the  evolved  or  reflected 
state  of  divinity  —  the  Son ;  and  Siva,  the  reconversion  of  the 
Son  or  non-protogoneus  divinity  into  the  Father  —  the  Holy 
Ghost. 


IN   ITS    POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  125 

To  Moisasur  too,  the  means  of  repentance  were  vouch- 
safed, but  he  obstinately  persisted  in  his  disloyalty; 
enlarged  the  limits  of  his  satanic  empire ;  and  even 
strove  to  seduce  the  penitents  from  their  renewed 
allegiance.  The  human  soul  having  emanated  from 
the  pleroma  or  mundane  soul,  all  those  who  shall 
assiduously  exercise  their  reason  by  divine  contem- 
plation, may  attain  so  great  a  degree  of  perfection 
that  immediately  after  death,  they  shall  be  qualified 
to  reenter  or  be  reabsorbed  into  it ;  while  those  who 
do  not  make  such  progress  in  amelioration,  pass 
again  either  into  human  or  animal  bodies;  the  retri- 
bution of  good  and  bad  deeds,  is  like  the  ocean  bil- 
low,—  no  one  can  stay  it!  Finally,  after  the  con- 
summation of  the  present  order  of  things,  Siva  will 
issue  forth  like  a  burning  flame,  and  consume  the 
world.* 

The  dogmas  and  customs  of  the  people  of  the 
Nile,  in  reference  to  a  future  state,  deserve  a  con- 
cise, yet  careful  investigation.  The  dead  of  the 
Egyptians  were  subject  to  a  twofold  judicial  investi- 
gation, before  their  present  or  future  destiny  could 
be  decided.  As  soon  as  a  person  had  expired,  the 
members  of  his  caste  assembled  around  his  corpse, 
and  pronounced  him  worthy  or  unworthy  of  the 
honor  of  embalming  and  the  solemn  rites  of  sepul- 
ture, agreeably  to  the  tenor  of  his  past  life.  Prior 
to  his   admission  into   Amenthes,f — the   Egyptian 

*  Polite. 

f  Amenthes  signifies  ades,  zophos,  or  erebos  —  inferum  sedes: 
occidens  and  darkness,  or  the  infernal  regions.  The  Jields  of  the 
blessed  of  the  Egyptians,  were  located  in  the  Lybian  desert,  at  the 
distance  of  a  seven-days'  journey  west  of  Thebes. 

11* 


126  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Hades,  the  dead  had  to  appear  before  the  tribunal 
of  the  great  god  Osiris,  the  omnipotent  judge  and 
lord  of  the  dead,  who  determined  his  fate  in  the 
spirit- world  in  conformity  to  the  principles  and  char- 
acter of  his  life.  The  last  solemn  judgment  scene, 
as  it  was  symbolically  depicted  by  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  according  to  the  "  Descriptions  and  An- 
tiquities of  Egypt,"  by  the  French  savans,  is  thus 
represented  in  a  wall  painting,  in  the  temple  of  Isis 
at  Thebes. 

The  dead  is  conducted  by  the  goddess  Isis  to  the 
supreme  judge,  Osiris.  A  balance  appears  in  the 
tablature  which  is  accurately  adjusted  by  two  hiero- 
glyphical  personages,  who  are  no  doubt  intended  to 
symbolize  the  scrupulous  exactness  with  which  Osi- 
ris awards  his  sentence  upon  the  arraigned  mortals. 
On  this  scale  of  equal  justice,  are  weighed  the  good 
and  bad  qualities  or  actions  of  the  deceased,  and  the 
result  carefully  noted  down  by  Hermes  or  Thoth,  — 
the  Egyptian  Mercury,  —  in  the  presence  of  Osiris. 
A  priest  and  priestess  intercede  with  Isis  in  behalf 
of  the  anxious,  trembling  souls :  a  beautiful  trait  of 
pagan  humanity!  A  lotus  flower,  containing  four 
mummy-like  figures,  composes  a  part  of  the  scene, 
and  is  intended  as  the  symbol  of  immortality.  The 
god  Harpocrates,  who  seemed  to  be  charged  with 
the  execution  of  the  Osirian  sentence,  assumes  his 
place  in  the  grand  and  solemn  drama,  with  a  flail  in 
one  hand  and  a  pastoral  crook  in  the  other.  Upon 
an  altar  before  Harpocrates,  is  mounted  a  monster, 
composed  of  the  body  of  a  lion  and  the  head  of  a 
boar,  pierced  by  an  arrow,  and  which  some  authors 
suppose  to  represent  the  soul  of  the  dead  in  the  pres- 


IN  ITS   POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.  127 

ence  of  its  dread  and  omniscient  judge,  while  others, 
with  more  probability  of  truth,  recognize  in  it  the 
prototype  of  the  Grecian  Cerberus  or  dog  of  hell.  In 
Amenthes  the  souls  were  purified  and  cleansed  under 
the  salutary  instructions  and  guidance  of  the  mild 
but  inflexible  Osiris :  for  the  souls,  however  blame- 
less and  holy  they  might  be,  having  once  inhabited 
a  material  or  mortal  body,  were  more  or  less  pollut- 
ed, and  needed  expiation.  Amenthes  was  therefore 
a  place  of  repentance  and  amelioration,  and  all  de- 
pended upon  the  docility  and  moral  perfectibility  of 
the  soul  while  it  existed  under  the  parental  tuition 
of  Osiris,  to  render  its  future  transmigratory  cycle, 
after  its  discharge  from  the  Amenthean  abode,  pleas- 
ant or  disagreeable,  and  of  a  longer  or  shorter  dura- 
tion, and  accordingly  enter  either  into  the  body  of  a 
new-born  child  or  that  of  some  animal :  transmigra- 
tion to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  was  the  inexorable 
doom  of  every  soul ;  ay,  it  was  the  kuklos  undgkes  — 
the  inevitable  cycle.  They  however,  who  had  led 
wicked  lives,  or  been  prone  to  flesh  and  sense  in  their 
pre- Amenthean  state  of  existence,  and  who  proved 
incorrigible  at  the  expiration  of  their  probatory 
period,  had  to  pass  through  all  the  diversified  grades 
of  transmigration  from  the  lowest  form  of  sentient, 
organic  life  to  that  of  man,  before  they  could  pre- 
sume to  indulge  a  hope  of  final  salvation.  Accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  the  Egyptians  were  the  first  peo- 
ple who  taught  that  the  soul  of  man,  upon  the  de- 
composition of  the  body,  entered  into  the  bodies  of 
inferior  animals ;  that  having  passed  through  all  the 
animal  forms  of  life,  it  at  last  assumed  a  human 
body;    and  that  this  metempsychosis:    perhaps    it 


128  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

would  be  more  proper  to  say  metensomatosis  — 
change  of  body,  was  accomplished  in  the  space  of 
three  thousand  years.  This  trans  migratory  process 
of  human  development,  could  be  curtailed,  though 
as  we  have  seen  already,  not  entirely  prevented,  by 
the  embalming  of  the  dead;  for  as  long  as  the  ele- 
mentary parts  of  the  body  adhered  together,  the 
soul  continued  to  remain  in  it.  Hence  the  origin  of 
the  art  of  embalming,  and  the  existence  of  mum 
mies.* 

It  is  admitted  upon  the  best  authorities,  that  an 
cient  Egypt  was  inhabited  by  priests  and  nomades, 
who,  if  they  were  not  distinct  races,  were  at  least 
antipodal  to  each  other  in  their  manners  and  intel- 
lectual attainments  :  these  were  ignorant  barbarians  ; 
those,  men  of  varied  and  superior  knowledge  as  well 
as  of  more  refined  habits.  The  latter  taught  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  under  the  name  of  palingenisia, 
—  a  return  of  it  to  the  celestial  spheres,  or  its  reabsorp- 
tion  into  the  Supreme  Being,  without  regard  to  the 
doctrine  or  the  necessity  of  transmigration ;  while 
they  communicated  the  same  important  truth  to  the 
former  under  the  name  and  form  of  a  metempsy- 
chosis, as  these  rude,  illiterate  hordes  could  have  no 
idea  of  the  existence  of  the  soul  without  the  body. 
It  appears  from  Ossian  that  to  have  no  funeral  elegy 


*  Osiris  was  the  first  mummy,  and  was  buried  in  the  catacomb 
of  Abydus  in  upper  Egypt :  priests,  kings,  and  nobles  were  emu- 
lous to  have  sepulture  there,  and  to  repose  in  death  near  the  great 
god  Osiris.  There  were  numerous  catacombs  in  Egypt,  some  of 
which  were  of  vast  extent.  The  most  celebrated  were  those  of 
Thebes  on  the  west  side  of  the  Nile  towards  the  Lybian  desert ; 
of  Memphis  in  lower  Egypt ;  of  Lycopolis,  etc. 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  129 

sung  over  his  tomb,  was  regarded  among  the  Celtic 
nations,  as  the  greatest  calamity  which  could  befall 
a  mortal,  as  in  such  a  case  his  soul  could  not  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  airy  halls  of  his  fathers.     How  sadly 
significant,  therefore,  are  the  words,  "  No  bard  sang 
over   Erin's  king."     After  death,  they  expected  to 
follow   employments    similar    to    those    which    had 
amused  or  occupied  them  in  this  life  —  to  fly  with 
their  friends  on  the  wings  of  the  clouds,  in  pursuit  of 
airy  deer,  and  to  listen  to  the  chants  of  the  bards  who 
should  resound  their  praises.     The  Norse  kingdom 
of  the  dead,  called  hel,  from  Hela,  the  goddess  of 
Helheim  or  the  infernal  regions,  and  the  impersona- 
tion of  death  and  hell  respectively,  is  situated  in  the 
higher  latitudes  of  the  polar  regions.      Its  inmates 
may  be  seen  and  conversed  with,  but  a  deliverance 
from  it  before  the  time  fixed  by  fate,  is  impossible ; 
yet  the  living  and  the  dead  can  keep  up  a  mnemonic 
correspondence.     When  Baldur,  the  Apollo   of  the 
Scandinavians,  died,  his  wife  Nanna  accompanied 
him  to  Hela,  and  while  her  celestial  consort  sent  his 
ring  draupnir  to  Odin  as  a  keepsake,  by  the  hands 
of  Hermod,  who  had  come  from  Asgard,  the  abode 
of  the  gods,  to  procure  his  liberation,  she  made  him 
the   bearer    of  a  linen   cassock  and  other    splendid 
gifts  to  Frigga,  the  fair  spouse  of  the  stern  god,  and 
of  a  gold  finger-ring  to  Fulla.* 

*  It  deserves  to  be  remarked  in  this  place,  that  the  cold  and 
cheerless  regions  of  Hela,  to  which  those  who  died  a  natural  death 
descended,  were  not  regarded  as  places  of  punishment,  the  sojourn 
in  them  being  doomed  merely  to  a  negation  of  that  rude  kind  of 
celestial  bliss  reserved  exclusively  for  the  chosen  heroes.  Eating 
and  drinking  appear  to  have  been  observed  in  the  hall  of  Hela, 


130  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

"  It  was  the  firm  conviction  of  the  ancient  Ger- 
mans," writes  Gibbon,  "  that  a  life  spent  in  arms, 
and  a  glorious  death  in  battle,  were  the  best  prepara- 
tions for  a  happy  futurity,  either  in  this  or  in  an- 
other world."  "  The  things  which  a  German  valued 
most,"  says  Murphy,  in  a  note  on  Tacitus,  "  were  his 
arms  and  his  horse.  These  were  added  to  the  fune- 
ral pile,  with -the  persuasion  that  the  deceased  would 
have  the  same  delight  in  his  new  state  of  existence." 
To  sit  in  the  hall  of  Odin  —  the  Elysium  of  the 
Teutonic  nations,  known  in  Gothic  mythology  under 
the  euphonic  appellation  of  Valhalla,  and  quaff  the 
flowing  goblets  of  mead  and  ale,  was  an  idea  ever 
present  to  the  minds  of  the  Gothic  warriors ;  and  to 
obtain  this  glorious  distinction,  inspired  a  contempt 
of  danger,  and  the  most  daring  and  invincible  cour- 
age.* This  theme,  so  pregnant  in  the  most  attractive 
fiction,  whose  object  is  the  promotion  of  virtue  with 
the  hope  of  a  just  reward,  and  which  is  at  once  so  ad 
homtynem  and  ingenuous,  is  far  from  being  exhausted, 
and  therefore  awaits  a  more  prolix  elucidation. 

The  doctrine  of  future  rewards  and  punishments, 
according  to  the  mythological  creed   of  the   Scandi- 


mucli  in  the  same  manner  as  in  that  of  Odin.  In  the  Alvis-mal, 
mention  is  made  of  a  kind  of  corn  which  grows  in  the  infernal 
regions,  and  it  is  stated  that  the  drink  which  men  call  ale,  is  known 
there  under  the  name  of  mead.  Whatever  may  be  the  real  condi- 
tion of  souls  in  a  fiery  hell,  it  is  certain  that  the  shades  in  the  frosty 
halls  of  Hela  —  the  gelid  hell  of  the  Norse  people,  are  far  from 
being  in  a  condition  which  is  utterly  deplorable.  Hermod,  for  in- 
stance, finds  Baldur  mounted  upon  an  elevated  seat,  and  both  pass 
the  evening  very  comfortably.  —  Northern  Antiquities. 
*  Beloe  on  Herodotus. 


IN   ITS   POPULAR   DEVELOPMENT.  131 

naviau  branch  of  the  Teutonic  race,  who,  under  the 
respective  appellations  of  Danes,  Swedes,  Norwe- 
gians, and  Icelanders,  inhabit  that  portion  of  North- 
ern Europe,  anciently  known  as  Scandinavia,  at- 
tained that  elaborate  expansion,  and  nice  arrange- 
ment of  parts,  which  almost  gives  it  the  precision 
and  entitles  it  to  the  rank  of  a  system ;  and  being 
moreover,  a  fair  type  of  the  mythic  faith  of  the  Ger- 
manic division  of  this  great  family  of  nations,  in  re- 
spect to  a  future  life  and  retribution,  a  notice  of  it 
in  this  place,  cannot  consistently  be  omitted.  It  ex- 
pressly distinguishes  two  different  abodes  for  the 
meritorious,  and  as  many  for  the  culpable.  Of  those, 
the  first  was  the  celebrated  palace  of  Odin,  named, 
as  it  has  been  stated  already,  Valhalla,  where  that 
august  divinity  received  all  such  as  died  a  violent 
death,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  world ; 
that  is,  to  the  time  of  that  universal  desolation  of 
nature,  which  was  to  be  followed  by  a  new  creation, 
and  what  the  Norse  people  called  Ragnarok  or  the 
twilight  of  the  gods.  The  second  was  recognized 
under  the  name  of  Gimli ;  that  is,  the  palace  covered 
with  gold,  which,  after  the  renovation  of  all  things, 
was  to  be  the  eternal  home  of  the  just,  where  they 
were  to  enjoy  extatic  and  perennial  delights.  Gimli  * 
is  in  heaven,  signifies  heaven,  nay,  is  heaven  itself, 
and  of  all  the  habitations  of  the  blessed,  it  deservedly 
ranks  the  highest,  and  inspires  the  most  impassioned 


*  Grimm  observes  that  in  the  Edda,  Gimli  is  the  dative  case, 
a  gimli,  and  he  thinks  that  the  nominative  was  gimill,  and  had  the 
sa*me  signification  as  hiniill,  Himmel,  and  heaven.  —  Northern  An- 
tiquities. 


132  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

aspirations.*  In  respect  to  the  two  places  which 
were  designed  for  the  infliction  and  endurance  of 
primitive  justice,  they  distinguished  the  first  by  the 
name  of  Niflheim  —  the  nebulous  home,  which  was 
only  to  continue  till  the  renovation  of  the  world, 
when  it  was  to  be  seperseded  by  the  second,  desig- 
nated by  the  term  Nastrona —  the  strand  or  shore 
of  the  dead,  which  was  to  endure  for  ever.  In  this 
Plutonian  region,  there  is  a  vast  and  appalling  struc- 
ture with  doors  facing  the  cold,  sombre  north,  and 
formed  entirely  of  serpents,  wattled  together  like 
wicker-work,  with  their  heads  and  forked  tongues 
turned  towards  the  inside  of  the  hall,  and  which  con- 
tinually vomit  forth  floods  of  venom,  in  which  all 
those  are  obliged  to  wade  who  so  far  forget  the  obli- 
gations of  the  moral  law,  as  to  commit  murder  or  to 
forswear  themselves  ! 

Valhalla — the  hall  of  the  chosen,  like  Niflheim, 
was  only  to  exist  till  the  conflagration  of  the  world. 
Those  only  whose  blood  had  been  shed  in  battle, 
might  presume  to  aspire  to  the  enjoyments  and  dis- 
tinctions, which  Odin  prepared  for  them  in  this  stately 
mansion  of  ghostly  daring  and  sensua-celestial  de- 
lights. Such  martial  ideas  of  future  bliss,  show 
plainly  enough  what  the  Scandinavians  most  relished 
in  this  life.     "  The   heroes,"  says  the  Edda,  "  who 


*  Beside  Valhalla  and  Glmli,  there  were  two  halls,  which  also 
afforded  abodes  of  bliss  to  the  righteous  and  well-minded.  One 
was  called  Brimir,  which  was  located  in  that  region  of  heaven  de- 
nominated Okolui :  all  who  delighted  in  quaffing  good  drink,  could 
find  an  abundant  supply  in  it  The  other  was  known  as  a  gor- 
geous mansion  of  ruddy  gold :  it  was  named  Sindri,  and  stood  on 
the  mountains  of  iSada. 


IN  ITS  POPULAR  DEVELOPMENT.         133 

are  received  into  the  palace  of  Odin,  have  every  day 
the  pleasure  of  arming  themselves,  of  passing  in  re- 
view, of  ranging  themselves  in  ofller  of  battle,  and 
of  cutting'  one  another  in  pieces  ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
hour  of  repast  approaches,  they  return  on  horseback 
all  safe  and  sound  to  the  hall  of  Odin,  and  fall  to 
eating  and  drinking.  Though  the  number  of  them 
cannot  be  counted,  the  flesh  of  the  boar  Saehrimnir 
is  sufficient  for  them  all ;  every  day  it  is  served  up 
at  table,  and  every  day  it  is  renewed  again  to  its 
original  bulk  :  *  their  beverage  is  ale  and  mead ;  one 
single  goat,  whose  milk  is  excellent  mead,  furnishes 
enough  of  that  liquor  to  intoxicate  all  the  heroes. 
Odin  alone  drinks  wine,  the  only  fermented  liquid 
to  the  use  of  which  his  good  taste  or  his  superior 
dignity  invites  his  attention.  A  crowd  of  virgins 
wait  upon  the  heroes  at  table,  and  fill  their  cups  as 
fast  as  they  empty  them." 

Every  kind   of   death  except  such    as   was  of  a 


*  Tire  ancients  taught  a  prima  materia  in  the  graves,  which 
survived  corruption,  and  constituted  the  first  germ  of  a  new  life. 
It  was  defined  as  an  oily,  tallow-like,  and  seedy  matter,  and  be- 
lieved to  be  the  ovary  of  materia-generative  existence.  Oil  or 
,  fat  in  man  and  animals,  as  a  life-giving  element,  embraced  in  its 
genial  efficacy  the  present  and  the  future  world.  This  physio- 
psychological  hypothesis  explains  the  reason  why  the  shades  in 
Valhalla  feasted  so  freely  on  the  fat  of  the  boar,  and  why  the  first 
material  life  which  appeared  in  a  stone,  was  commemorated  in  the 
anointing  of  stones,  pillars,  etc.,  with  oil  or  butter.  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha  formed  men  out  of  stones,  and  the  German  Leute,  is  de- 
rived from  the  Greek  lithos,  a  stone,  as  is  laos,  the  people,  from  las, 
which  also  signifies  a  stone.  Again,  Spuck  is  etymologically  de- 
duced from  Specie,  fat,  and  is  the  prima  materia  resisting  resolution 
into  ex-homo  and  absolute  spiritual  life.  —  G. 

12 


134  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,   ETC. 

violent  nature,  incurred  in  war  or  single  combat, 
was  considered  by  these  Norse  warriors  as  igno- 
minious, and  unwffrthy  of  Teutonic  fame  ;  and  hence, 
whoever  dared  to  make  his  exit  out  of  this  world  in 
the  natural  way,  was  inevitably  doomed  to  the  shad- 
owy, dismal  abodes  of  Ninheim.  Niflheim  —  so 
dreary,  so  preter naturally  terrific,  was  a  region  of  al- 
most illimitable  dimensions,  and  consisted  of  no  less 
than  nine  worlds,  which  were  reserved  for  those  that 
died  of  disease  or  old  age.  It  was  here  where  Hela, 
or  death,  exercised  her  despotic  power  with  the  most 
extreme  rigor,  and  under  circumstances  the  most  ap- 
palling: ;  her  palace  was  Anguish  ;  her  table  Famine  ; 
her  waiters  responded  to  the  names  of  Slowness  and 
Delay ;  Precipice  was  the  threshold  of  her  door ; 
Care  her  bed ;  she  herself  was  livid  and  ghastly  pale  ; 
and  her  very  looks  inspired  sentiments  of  lasting  and 
profound  horror.* 

*  Northern  Antiquities. 


BOOK  II. 


THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 


IN   ITS 


SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


PROLOGUE. 


To  be  intelligible,  a  few  of  the  predominant  phrases,  used  in 
this  part  of  the  work,  need  elucidation.  Such  are  symbol,  alle- 
gory, and  mythos.  A  symbol  is  a  sensible  sign,  involving  a  logical 
conclusion.  Thus  lightning  and  other  meteoric  phenomena  are 
symbols,  as  are  also  the  omens  drawn  from  the  significant  flight 
and  striking  conduct  of  birds  deemed  sacred.  The  metaphorical 
representations  in  the  sacred  mysteries  ;  as  the  fawn-skin  in  which 
the  initiated  were  clothed ;  the  cicade  which  they  wore  in  their 
hair;  the  purple  carpets  which  covered  their  apartments,  were 
symbols  of  occult  truths.  Moreover,  the  language  and  signs  of 
recognition  in  vo<nie  among  them,  together  with  the  formulas 
which  they  employed  in  the  discharge  of  their  mysterious  func- 
tions, passed  under  the  name  of  symbol,  or  a  cognate  term,  such 
as  sunthema.  In  its  theological  application,  the  symbol  represents 
divine  truth  in  the  image  or  sign.  Its  distinctive  character,  as  a 
medium  of  intelligence,  is  a  definite  and  direct  appeal  to  the  hu- 
man mind.  There  are  various  kinds  of  symbols,  and  they  are 
either  natural  or  artistic.  Thus  the  sculptured  or  painted  images 
of  the  gods,  are  plastic  symbols ;  while  animals  furnish  the  zoonic, 
and  plants  the  phytonic  symbols.  Phonetic  symbols  are  based 
upon  sound,  and  tones  and  language  are  their  organs  of  expres- 
sion; and  the  aphonetic  are  those  which  are  destitute  of  the 
acoustic  attributes.  An  allegory  considered,  not  as  a  figure  of 
speech,  but  as  a  token  or  emblematical  representation  of  an  act 
or  event,  implies  a  hidden  thought,  or  an  arbitrary  sign  or  device. 

12*  (137) 


138  THE    HEATHEN    RELIGION,    ETC. 

The  distinction  between  a  symbolical  and  an  allegorical  represen- 
tation, may  be  briefly  thus  defined :  the  latter  simply  imports  a 
general  conception,  or  conveys  an  idea  which  differs  from  itself, 
and  of  which  it  is  not  the  exponent  but  merely  the  index ; 
whereas  the  former  is  itself  the  embodied  idea  rendered  percep- 
tible to  the  senses.  There  a  representation,  properly  speaking, 
exists :  an  icon,  or  image,  is  given,  but  the  idea  contained  in  it  or 
the  truth  which  it  is  designed  to  convey,  instead  of  being  ex- 
pressed is  only  implied,  and  must,  therefore,  be  determined  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws  or  the  nature  of  hieroglyphics.  Here  this 
idea  has  descended  into  the  corporeal  world,  and  we  perceive  it 
immediately  and  at  once  in  the  idol  or  form  which  it  assumes.  In 
one  word,  in  the  symbol  there  is  an  instantaneous  revelation  ;  in 
the  allegory,  a  circumlocution  in  the  solution  of  its  significance. 
Finally,  the  allegory  comprises  the  mythos,  which  the  symbol  does 
not.  The  Greek  mythos,  anglicized  into  myth,  is  synonymous 
with  the  German  GemiUh,  and  signifies,  etymologically,  the  undis- 
closed thoughts  of  the  soul.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts,  and 
either  includes  ancient  events,  in  which  case  it  is  called  Saga,  or 
narration  :  or,  ancient  faith  and  doctrine,  when  it  is  denominated 
tradition. 

The  characteristic  trait  of  the  myth  is  to  convert  reflections 
into  history,  or  actual  occurrences.  As  in  the  epos,  so  in  the  myth, 
the  historical  element  predominates.  Facts  often  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  myth,  and  with  these  religious  ideas  are  interwoven, 
or  in  other  words,  divine  truth  like  the  fire  of  Prometheus,  is 
brought  down  from  heaven  into  the  tangible  sphere  of  human 
events.  Considered  practically,  it  is  applicable  to  statements  or 
accounts  generally,  and  may  be  true  or  false  like  any  other  com- 
munication. In  process  of  time,  a  distinction  was  made  between 
logos  —  a  saying  or  report,  and  mythos,  when  the  former  im- 
parted a  true,  and  the  latter  a  fabulous,  narration.  Lastly,  a  myth 
may  be  of  a  mixed  nature,  or  partly  true  and  partly  fictitious. 
In  such  a  case,  it  was  said  to  be  a  myth  in  which  truth  was  mir- 
rored forth,  or  that  there  was  logos  in  mythos ;  that  is,  truth  in 
fiction. 


DIVISION  I. 


THE  ASTRONOMICAL   GODS,  OR    PHYSIC O-ASTRO- 
NOMICAL  THEOLOGY.* 


SECTION   I. 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

OSIRIS     AND     ISIS,     TYPIION    AND     NEPHTHYS. 

Before  I  proceed  to  remove  the  mystic  veil  of 
ages  from  the  gods  and  the  religion  of  antiquity,  it 
is  deemed  expedient  briefly  to  show  that  the  very 
root  and  essence  of  the  theology  of  the    ancients, 


*  To  classify  the  gods  of  antiquity  with  any  degree  of  rigid 
precision,  I  hold  to  be  impracticable ;  for,  though  a  broad  line  of 
distinction  is  drawn  around  some  of  them,  others  have  many 
functions  and  attributes  in  common,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
materially  differ  in  other  respects.  Whoever,  therefore,  may  feel 
so  disposed,  can  dispense  with  the  systematic  distinctions  which 
the  author  has  attempted  to  establish,  and  pursue  his  mytho- 
religious  contemplations  by  simply  regarding  the  gods  in  the  light 
of  their  national  or  individual  peculiarities. 

(139) 


140  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

as  far  as  myth  or  history  has  made  us  acquainted 
with  their  creeds  and  their  worship,  is  a  thoroughly 
digested  system  of  emanation  and  evolution  :  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh;  and  not  merely  in  the  abstract; 
as,  wisdom,  goodness,  power,  justice,  but  also  in  the 
concrete  ;  as,  King,  Saviour,  Creator,  destroyer,  etc. 
A  beautiful  idea,  full  of  truth  and  significance !  It 
has  already  flashed  across  the  path  of  our  vision, 
and  will  still  continue  to  be  reflected  in  our  future 
investigations,  and  to  shine  with  a  sufficiently  strong 
light  to  establish  it  as  a  primary  feature  in  mytho- 
logical faith.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  is  good  or 
great,  fair  or  interesting  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  that 
is  not  of  God  ?  What  is  the  vast,  multitudinous 
universe,  but  the  fulness  of  Him  thatfilleth  all  in  all? 
A  universality  of  divine  life  and  power  in  creation,  is 
clearly  taught  by  the  inspired  Apostle,  in  the  nervous 
and  lofty  sentence,  "  There  is  one  God  and  Father 
of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  you 
allP  The  belief  or  doctrine  that  all  is  of  God  and 
therefore  is  divine,  or  that  preternatural  energies 
everywhere  manifest  themselves  in  man  and  world- 
controlling  influences,  was  the  first  article  of  faith 
among  men ;  the  alpha  and  the  omega  of  their  relig- 
ious convictions,  as  we  have  shown  on  former  occa- 
sions. The  obliteration  of  this  truth  from  the  soul, 
a  doubt  of  it,  or  even  only  an  unconscious,  wavering 
conviction  of  its  reality,  is  a  forfeiture  of  innocence ; 
is  sin ;  is  the  fall  of  man  and   of  angels ! 

As  to  the  Typhons,  the  Ahrimans,  the  Moisasurs, 
etc.,  the  personifications  of  physical  and  moral  evil, 
what  are  they,  considered  in  the  latter  capacity,  but 
the  symbolized  instrumentalities  of  the  development 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  141 

of  true  life,  the  homely  handmaids  of  the  only  feasi- 
ble happiness  among  finite  spirits  ?  and,  in  the 
former,  but  good  often  misunderstood,  or  the  un- 
pleasant and  frequently  painful  manifestations  of 
nature,  which  are  the  primary  and  indispensable 
conditions  of  the  production  of  much,  if  not  all,  that 
is  useful  or  admirable  in  cosmic  organization  ?  They 
may  prove  hurtful  now,  eventually  they  will  bless. 
Man,  in  his  ignorance,  may  deprecate,  in  his  wisdom 
he  cannot  but  admire  and  appreciate  them.  The 
poet-author  of  the  "  Essay  on  Man,"  with  the  excep- 
tion, perhaps,  of  his  idea  of  the  deviation  of  nature, 
as  philosophically  as  evangelically  thus  interprets  the 
nature  and  end  of  evil :  — 

"  What  makes  all  physical  or  moral  ill  ? 
There  deviates  nature,  and  here  wanders  will. 
God  sends  not  ill,  if  rightly  understood, 
Or  partial  ill  is  universal  good, 
Or  change  admits,  or  nature  lets  it  fall, 
Short,  and  but  rare,  till  man  improv'd  it  all." 

Devils,  we  have  seen,  will  not  always  be  devils ; 
and  present  evil,  wisely  estimated  and  prudently  en- 
dured, is  but  the  embryo  of  future  good.  Did  not 
light  spring  up  in  primeval  darkness  ?  and  the  fair- 
proportioned,  illimitable  universe  once  lay  wrapt 
in  the  swaddlingclothes  of  grim,  impassive  chaos  ? 
Even  the  petition,  so  full  of  hope  and  promise,  "  De- 
liver us  from  evil,"  is,  at  least  to  some  extent,  a  stand- 
ing guaranty  of  this  truth.  Though  Osiris  the  good 
should  be  oppressed,  nay,  even  deprived  of  life,  yet 
will  he  rise  triumphantly  over  all  the  Typhonic  and 
Plutonic  powers.'  Nevertheless,  without  their  exist- 
ence it  would  be  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  to  rec- 
ognize him  as  the  good  god. 


142  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Osiris  and  Isis  are  the  two  principal  deities,  or  dei- 
fied personifications  of  nature,  especially  in  its  astro- 
nomical attributes,  among  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
Genealogy  traces  their  descent  to  Chronos  and  Rhea, 
or  according  to  some  mythologists,  to  Jupiter  and 
Rhea.  Their  social  relation  was  sanctified  and 
strengthened  by  the  connubial  tie,  but  owing  to  the 
adverse  periodical  changes  inherent  in  their  natures 
and  dynasty,  —  the  unpropitious  phases  which  nature 
assumes  in  the  course  of  its  annual  revolution,  both 
their  domestic  felicity  and  regal  prosperity  were  often 
painfully  interrupted,  and  the  mythic  account  of  their 
lives  and  reign  includes  passages  of  unparalleled 
trials  and  sufferings. 

Osiris  symbolized  the  sun  and  the  Nile,  Isis  the 
moon  and  Egypt ;  and  both,  the  solar  year.  The  god 
was  worshipped  under  the  form  of  an  ox  or  apis :  cLf*vi 
strictly  speaking,  under  that  of  taunts,  properly  so 
called,  one  of  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac ;  and 
the  goddess,  under  that  of  a  cow.  According  to  her 
Egyptian  votaries,  Isis  was  the  first  of  the  deities 
who  called  the  attention  of  the  human  race  to  the 
cultivation  of  wheat,  barley,  and  other  cereal  grains ; 
while  her  celestial  consort  introduced  the  plough,  the 
hoe,  the  spade,  and  other  agricultural  implements  to 
the  notice  of  mortals.  He  enjoyed,  also,  the  envi- 
able reputation  of  having  been  the  first  god  who 
taught  man  how  to  break  the  ox  to  the  plough  ;  and 
to  his  prudent  foresight  and  beneficent  care  the 
institution  of  civil  laws  and  religious  worship,  among 
the  people  of  the  Nile,  owed  its  origin.  After  he  had 
accomplished  a  salutary  reform  at  home,  Osiris  re- 
solved to  go  forth  and  spread  the  blessings  of  civili- 


IX   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  143 

zation  in  other  parts  of  the  earth.  During  his  ab- 
sence, the  regency  of  his  kingdom  was  confided  to 
the  hands  of  the  beloved  Isis.  He  travelled  into  dif- 
ferent countries,  and  by  means  of  music  and  moral 
suasion  alone,  everywhere  succeeded  to  instil  into 
the  minds  of  mankind  the  principles  of  knowledge  ; 
to  instruct  them  in  the  faith  and  service  of  the  gods ; 
and  to  disseminate  among  them  the  fruits  of  those 
useful  agrarian  inventions  and  municipal  improve- 
ments, so  essential  to  the  social  prosperity  of  na- 
tions. 

On  his  return,  Osiris  found  the  minds  of  his  sub- 
jects agitated  :  his  wicked  brother  Typhon,  grown 
presumptuous  in  consequence  of  his  protracted  ab- 
sence, and  thinking  it  to  be  a  favorable  opportunity 
to  seize  the  reins  of  government,  now  grown  slack 
in  the  feeble  grasp  of  the  goddess  queen,  he  boldly 
scattered  the  baleful  seeds  of  sedition  among  the  peo- 
ple ;  but  the  vigilant  Isis  manifested  a  courage  and 
provident  assiduity,  at  this  critical  juncture  of  the 
commonwealth,  which  for  the  present  disconcerted 
all  his  wily  plans,  and  completely  bafHed  his  perfidi- 
ous attempts  to  breed  disaffection  among  her  sub- 
jects, and  gradually  prepare  them  for  a  general  revolt. 
Typhon,  the  hateful  author  of  all  the  malignant  con- 
catenation of  causes  and  influences  in  nature,  un- 
abashed by  his  recent  defeat,  and  still  resolved  upon 
the  execution  of  his  contemplated  treachery,  now  en- 
tered into  a  league  with  seventy-two  Devs,  all  mem- 
bers of  his  own  depraved  and  mischievous  family, 
and  besides,  formed  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  her 
sable  majesty  of  Ethiopia,  queen  Aso.  Thus  rein- 
forced, the  chief  of  the  conspirators  determined  no 


144  THE   HEATHEN  KELIGION 

longer  to  wage  an  inglorious  or  unprofitable  war 
against  an  enemy  whom  he  affected  to  despise,  or 
sought  to  subdue  by  the  infliction  of  a  wound,  which 
should  be  deep  and  painful  in  proportion  as  it  was 
unexpected,  and  therefore  unavoidable,  but  to  con- 
tend for  the  prize  of  life  and  of  empire  with  Osiris 
himself.  To  accomplish  his  atrocious  ends  with 
more  facility,  he  assumed  the  mask  of  friendship,  and 
probably  still  further  hiding  his  new  scheme  of  villany 
under  the  specious  semblance  of  remorse,  he  invited 
his  unsuspecting  victim  to  a  feast,  which  he  pretend- 
ed, was  especially  designed  to  do  him  honor.  Mean- 
while, the  fratricidal  wretch  had  had  a  superb  ark,  or 
chest,  prepared,  which,  while  the  unsuspecting  guests 
were  merrily  enjoying  the  festive  entertainment,  was 
suddenly  set  down  before  them,  and  promised  as  a 
present  to  him  whose  body  should  exactly  correspond 
to  its  dimensions :  the  chest  had  been  made  after  the 
measure  of  Osiris's  body  clandestinely  obtained !  All 
having  tried  the  novel  experiment  without  success,  it 
remained  for  Osiris  to  lie  down  in  it,  which  he  had 
no  sooner  done,  than  Typhon  and  his  infamous  col- 
leagues rushed  to  the  spot,  closed  the  lid,  and  the 
more  effectually  to  secure  it,  circumfused  it  with  lead. 
After  this~daring  and  flagitious  achievement,  they 
threw  it  into  the  Nile,  whence  it  was  conveyed  into 
the  sea,  through  the  Tanitic  mouth  of  that  river. 
Thus  died  the  saviour  Osiris,  by  the  brutal  hands 
of  his  unfeeling  brother,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of 
the  month  Athyr,  the  thirteenth  day  of  November, 
and  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age  or  reign ! 
No  sooner  had  this  horrible  deed  been  perpetrated, 
than  Pan  and  the  Satyrs  ran  through  Egypt  in  all 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  145 

directions,  and  with  the  most  heart-rending  cries  and 
lamentations,  proclaimed  the  sudden  and  untimely 
fate  of  the  great  god. 

At  Chemmis,  Isis  received  the  doleful  tidings. 
The  most  impassioned  wailings  attested  the  inten- 
sity of  her  sorrow  and  the  greatness  of  her  loss. 
Frantically  she  beats  her  anguished  breast ;  cuts  off 
a  lock  of  her  hair,  and  deposits  it  in  the  place  as  a 
memorial  of  the  tragic  event ;  puts  on  mourning  ap- 
parel ;  and  sets  out  to  seek  the  body  of  her  murdered 
husband.  Everywhere  she  makes  anxious  inquiries, 
and  at  last  children  inform  her  of  the  place  where 
she  might  presume  to  find  the  precious  remains  of 
the  lost  one. 

An  incident  which  occurred  during  the  lifetime  of 
Osiris,  and  which  might  have  created  considerable 
disturbance  in  families  composed  of  mere  mortals, 
and  governed  by  purely  human  principles,  proved 
highly  advantageous  to  the  bereft  and  disconsolate 
Isis.  Typhon  had  a  sister  known  under  the  appella- 
tion of  Nephthys,  who  was  also  his  wife.  It  hap- 
pened, on  a  certain  occasion,  that  Osiris,  who  lived 
under  the  same  roof  with  his  Typhonian  kindred, 
mistook  Nephthys  for  his  lawful  spouse,  and  the  con- 
sequence was  the  birth  of  a  son,  named  Anubis,  wise 
and  good  like  his  illustrious  sire,  but  of  the  nature 
and  with  the  head  of  a  dog.  This  singular  creature 
Isis  makes  her  confident  ally,  and  both  now  renew 
the  tedious  search  after  the  dead  body  with  redoubled 
zeal.  For  a  long  time  their  endeavors  prove  fruit- 
less ;  for  scarcely  had  the  encased  god  been  driven 
among  the  bulrushes  near  Byblus,  on  the  Phoenician 
coast,  when  a  latent  power  of  divinity,  still  residing 

13 


146  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

among  his  remains,  so  miraculously  affected  an  indi- 
vidual of  the  erica-family  of  plants,  that  from  a  small 
shrub,  it  suddenly  shot  up  into  a  lofty  and  majestic 
tree,  whose  ample  trunk    completely  enclosed,  and 
for  some  time   entirely  hid  from  view,  the  floating 
tomb  of  the  defunct  deity.     At  last  Malcandros,  king 
of  Phoenicia,  happening  to  take  a  walk  on  the  mys- 
terious strand,  and  struck  with  the  size  and  beauty 
of  the  erica,  had  it  cut  down  and  wrought  into  a 
pillar  for  his  palace.     Sacred  birds  and  Anubis  an- 
nounce this  fact  to  Isis.     Oppressed  with  grief,  and 
in  the  habit,  and  with  the   demeanor  of  a  servant- 
maid,  she  sat  down  at  a  well  before  the  walls  of  Byb- 
lus,  where  she  was  discovered  by  the  queen's  maids 
of  honor.     While  plaiting  her  hair,  she  indulged  in  a 
brief   conversation   with    these    fair    damsels.      No 
sooner  had  the  latter  returned  to  their  royal  mistress, 
than  the  whole  palace  was  filled  with  the  most  deli- 
cious odors.     They  now  related  their  interview  with 
the    interesting    stranger,    and    observe    that   in  the 
adornment  of  her  hair,  she  had  made  use  of  a  very 
fragrant  and    precious    ointment.      The    queen    im- 
mediately sent  for  her,  and  happening  to  have  an 
infant  son,  she  hesitated  not  to  appoint  Isis  to  be  his 
nurse.     Instead  of  giving  the  child  the  breast  as  she 
was  expected  to  do,  she  presumed  to  discharge  her  as- 
sumed maternal  duty,  by  simply  introducing  her  fore- 
finger into  his  mouth."    In  the  night,  when  all  were 
buried  in  profound  sleep,  she  laid  the  scion  of  royalty 
into  the  fire,.in  whose  burning  flames  she  sought  to 
purify  him  from  the  dross  and  pollution  of  his  ma- 
terial nature.      The  little  ward  grew  with  superhu- 
man rapidity,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  suspi- 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  147 

cion  of  the  vigilant  mother  was  aroused.  She  re- 
solved closely  to  watch  the  ambiguous  conduct  of 
the  nurse  during  the  night;  she  did  so  ;  saw  the  fiery 
purgation  ;  and  uttered  a  piercing  cry.  Thus  detect- 
ed, Isis  reveals  her  divinity  in  thunder  and  lightning, 
and  a  sheet  of  refulgent  light  fills  the  stately  man- 
sion. The  goddess  now  approaches  the  erica-pillar, 
and  with  one  tremendous  stroke  from  her  hand,  shiv- 
ers it  in  pieces.  The  wood  she  generously  gives  to 
the  king,  and  it  is  known  as  the  wood  of  grace. 
Around  the  long  lost  and  now  found  remains  of  her 
husband,  the  bereft  and  wretched  Isis  indulges  her 
grief  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  oldest  son  of  the  king 
died  from  the  mingled  emotions  of  pity  and  fright ! 
Hence  in  all  the  countries  bordering  upon  the  shores 
of  the  Nile,  might  be  heard  reechoing  the  funeral 
dirge  of  Maneros.  The  corpse  of  the  deceased  Osi- 
ris is  brought  back  in  triumph,  and  the  piety  and 
hope  of  the  Egyptians  are  once  more  reconciled  to 
the  decrees  of  fate. 

The  healing  influence  of  time  gradually  assuaged 
the  violence  of  Isis's  sorrow ;  and  fierce  revenge,  or 
at  least  a  keen  sense  of  retributive  justice,  now  as- 
sumed the  place  of  depressing  woe.  Horus,  or  Orus, 
the  son  of  an  injured  mother  and  a  murdered  father, 
is  the  only  remaining  member  of  this  august  family, 
.who  is  qualified  to  assert  its  rights  and  avenge  its 
wrongs.  During  the  calamitous  events  above  re- 
lated, this  promising  youth  resided  in  the  city  of 
Buto,  where  he  prosecuted  his  arduous  and  interest- 
ing studies  under  the  superintendence  of  a  learned 
and  faithful  female  friend.  Towards  this  place,  Isis 
directs  her  tottering  steps,  and,  bearing  with  her  the 


148  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

body  of  her  adored  spouse,  cautiously  hides  it  in  a 
lonely  spot  in  the  thickets  of  the  forest.  Alas !  for- 
tune is  known  only  by  its  instability.  Typhon  — 
cruel  hunter!  announces  a  chase,  and  this  leads  to 
the  discovery  of  the  secreted  treasure.  The  lid  is 
removed,  and  this  terrible  Nimrod  of  the  Nile,  fall- 
ing upon  the  inanimate  mass  with  the  insatiate  fury 
of  a  tiger,  cuts  it  up  into  fourteen  pieces.  The 
news  of  this  new  outrage  soon  reached  the  ears  of 
Isis,  —  the  cup  of  whose  affliction  could  only  be 
drained  when  it  overflowed  ;  preparing  for  the  worst, 
yet  hoping  for  the  best,  she  again  sets  out  to  recover 
at  all  hazards,  and  at  every  sacrifice,  the  dismem- 
bered corpse  of  the  ill-fated  god.  To  facilitate  her 
progress,  and  insure  success  to  her  enterprise,  she 
takes  the  precaution  to  embark  in  a  papyrus-boat, 
and  steering  through  all  the  seven  mouths  of  the 
Nile,  has  the  good  luck  to  find  thirtee_n  pieces  of  the 
mangled  remains,  but  the  fourteenth,  the  virilites, 
eludes  the  most  vigilant  search.  Unfortunately, 
the  blue  waters  of  the  Nile  had  borne  it  into  the 
sea,  and  what  is  still  worse,  certain  fishes  —  ever 
since  deemed  accursed  —  had  the  audacity  or  the 
misfortune  to  devour  it ! 

Instead,  however,  of  yielding  to  despair,  she 
evinces  a  fortitude  superior  to  the  frailties  of  her 
sex,  and  resolves  to  profit  by  her  partial  good  for- 
tune, without  repining  at  a  loss  which  her  skill 
might,  in  some  measure,  repair.  Accordingly  she  re- 
placed the  recovered  parts  with  the  accuracy  of  a 
practical  anatomist,  and  the  missing  portion  she 
supplied  by  a  fac-simile  made  of  the  wood  of  the 
sycamore.     To  commemorate  this  astounding  feat, 


IN    ITS    SYMBOLICAL    DEVELOPMENT.  149 

the  plastic  goddess  founded  the  phallus-mystery  ;  and 
the  body  of  Osiris  thus  restored,  was  conveyed  to 
Phila,*  where  it  was  honored  with  sepulchral  rites, 
and  since  that  time,  Philii  has  been  the  grand  mor- 
tuary of  Egypt.  There  gorgeous  temples  arose,  and 
thither  devout  pilgrimages  were  made,  in  glorifica- 
tion of  the  entombed  deity. 

The  decisive  moment  for  retribution  had  now 
arrived,  and  the  powerful  Ilorus,  born  of  Isis  at  a 
period  in  life  when  his  father  was  still  in  the  fall 
vigor  of  manhood,  stood  ready  to  inflict  condign 
punishment  upon  the  remorseless  slayer  of  his  father- 
god.  Osiris  appears  to  him  from  Arnenthes ;  tests 
his  capacity  for  the  execution  of  so  arduous  a  task ; 
and,  convinced  of  his  ability,  bids  him  vindicate  his 
fame,  and  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  ancient  laws. 
Thus  summoned  to  guide  the  helm  of  State,  and  to 
defend  the  rights  of  his  people,  and  the  hopes  of  his 
house,  the  gallant  youth  collects  a  valiant  host  of 
loyal  combatants  from  all  the  cantons  of  Egypt,  and 
boldly  prepares  to  meet  the  rebel  foe.  Meanwhile 
the  usurper  was  not  idle,  but  rallying  his  native 
troops  under  his  standard,  and  hastily  collecting  his 
foreign  auxiliaries,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
his  formidable  forces,  determined  to  wrest  by  force 
what  he  could  not  obtain  by  intrigue  or  deceit.  A 
battle  ensues,  and  justice  triumphs  over  wrong. 
Typhon,  the  vile   instigator  of    so  much  disorder, 


*  Phila,  also  written  Philoe,  is  an  ancient  town  in  ruins,  sit- 
uated in  an  island  of  the  Nile  bearing  the  same  name,  where  this 
river  enters  Egypt.  Phila  is  celebrated  for  its  splendid  architec- 
tural remains,  hieroglyphical  symbols,  and  lapidary  inscriptions. 

13* 


150  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

crime,  and  misery,  falls  alive  into  the  hands  of  the 
victor ;  but  strange  as  it  may  seem,  Isis  releases  the 
savage  captive !  This  act  of  unseasonable  clem- 
ency so  enrages  Horus,  that,  in  the  violence  of  his 
passion,  he  snatches  the  glittering  diadem  from  the 
head  of  his  mother.  Hermes,  ever  fertile  in  re- 
sources, substitutes  the  hide  of  a  cow  with  the  horns 
of  an  ox  in  the  place  of  it,  and  this  bovisal  decora- 
tion has  ever  since  been  the  distinguishing  symbol 
of  the  goddess. 

The  consequences  of  the  imprudent  liberation  of 
Typhon  soon  became  apparent,  and  he  repaid  the 
magnanimity  of  Isis  according  to  the  most  approved 
principles  of  satanism.  Assuming  the  contemptible 
office  of  a  traducer,  he  convoked  an  assembly  of 
homogeneous  spirits ;  and  with  an  effrontery  une- 
qualled in  myth  or  history,  contested  the  legitimacy 
of  Horus.  The  attempt,  however,  proved  futile,  and 
branded  as  a  liar,  he  and  his  confederates  in  iniquity 
were  banished  into  the  neighboring  deserts.  As  for 
Horus,  he  formally  ascended  the  throne  of  his  ances- 
tors, and  was  the  last  amon^  a  lonsr  and  illustrious 
line  of  gods  who  reigned  over  Egypt.  Human 
rulers  now  succeeded;*  yet  Isis  gave  birth  to  a  pos- 
thumous child,  named  Harpocrates,  the  mysterious 
offspring  of  the  mangled  remains  of  Osiris :  he  was 
the  son  of  pain  and  affliction,  and  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  be  lame  and  of  a  feeble  constitution. 


*  According  to  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  king  Menes 
reigned  in  Egypt  immediately  after  the  gods ;  and  in  his  time,  we 
are  told  by  the  former  historian,  the  whole  area  of  Egypt,  except 
the  province  of  Thebes,  was  a  vast,  dreary  expanse  of  marsh. 


m   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  151 


PARAGRAPH  I. 
The  Interpretation  of  the  Myth,  or  the  Egyptian  Year. 

The  ancient  Egyptian  calendar  divides  the  solar 
year  into  the  civil  and  the  natural,  or  agrarian  year. 
The  former  was  calculated  with  mathematical  accu- 
racy, and  was  composed  of  twelve  months,  each 
containing  thirty  days,  with  the  addition  of  five 
intercalary  days.  The  appearance  of  Sirius  at  the 
summer  solstice,  led  to  a  different  beginning  of  the 
year,  and  gave  rise  to  a  more  comprehensive  period 
of  time  —  the  Sothis-period.  It  constituted  the 
basis  of  sacerdotal  astronomy,  and  determined  the 
date  of  the  sacred  year. 

The  allegorical  myth  which  we  have  just  had  oc- 
casion to  consider,  is  founded  upon  the  climate  of 
Egypt,  and  the  agrarian  pursuits  of  its  inhabitants. 
The  sequel  will  show  that  it  is  intimately  connected 
with  the  annual  revolution  of  time,  and  the  different 
seasons  to  which  it  gives  rise.  The  Egyptian  year 
involves  a  twofold  seed  and  harvest-time.  The  first 
embraces  the  vernal  period  of  the  year,  and  extends 
from  February,  when  the  grain  is  sown,  to  July, 
when  it  attains  maturity;  the  second  includes  the 
autumnal  division,  in  which  an  interval  of  time, 
reaching  from  the  last  of  September  to  the  latter 
part  of  November,  marks  the  season  of  semination, 
which  is  succeeded  in  the  following  March  by  the 
golden  harvest.  Considered  now  as  the  Nile,  then 
as  the  sun,  Osiris,  like  Egypt's  cereal  grain,  must 
die  and  revive  twice  a  year ;  and  twice  a  year  Isis  is 


152  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

doomed  to  bewail  his  exit,  or  invited  to  rejoice  at  his 
return.  The  first  death  happens  in  the  spring,  from 
March  till  July,  which  is  the  season  of  glowing  heat 
in  Egypt ;  herbs  and  grasses  often  wither  and  die ; 
the  seeds  of  hope  and  of  a  new  harvest  frequently  lie 
dormant  in  the  earth  for  a  long  time,  or  the  nascent 
seedlings  pine  under  the  ungenial  influence  of  an 
arid  atmosphere.  Scorching  winds  blowing  from  the 
Lybian  desert,  essentially  contribute  to  inflame  and 
rarefy  the  air.  Serpents  and  venomous  insects  mul- 
tiply to  an  alarming  extent,  and  their  fury  and  de- 
stractiveness  increase  with  their  numbers.  Fatal 
diseases  rage  under  the  most  malignant  types,  and 
the  intensely  heated  sky  assumes  a  frightful,  lurid- 
red  hue,  —  the  favorite  color  of  Typhon.  It  is  the 
unpropitious  period  of  the  year,  when  the  malevolent 
god  reigns  paramount.  Isis,  the  parched  land  of 
Egypt,  languishes ;  she  utters  lamentations  of  dis- 
tress ;  and  pitiable  cries  are  sent  to  heaven  for  the 
ineffable  blessings  of  wTater.*     It  is  all  in  vain:  the 

*  "  The  situation  of  Egypt  upon  the  globe  makes  it  always 
•warm;  and  at  certain  seasons  the  heat  is  intolerable.  From 
March  till  November,  the  mercury  in  Fahrenheit's  thermometer 
rises  in  the  shade  to  eighty-six  or  eighty-eight  degrees.  This 
being  the  case  in  the  Delta,  the  heat  is  more  intense  in  Upper 
Egypt,  where  the  earth  has  little,  and  in  some  parts  no  vegetable 
clothing,' but  abounds  in  arid  and  burning  rocks.  In  this  situa- 
tion, the  thermometer  never  indicates  a  lower  temperature  than 
fifty  degrees,  and  seldom  less  than  fifty-two,  even  in  the  coldest 
season  of  the  year.  This  excessive  heat  is  partly  occasioned  by 
the  distance  of  Egypt  from  the  ocean,  and  by  the  moderate  height 
of  its  hills  ;  for  in  places  nearer  the  line,  where  the  mountains  are 
high,  the  cool  air,  descending  from  the  high  regions,  refreshes  the 
country,  and  moderates  the  climate.     And  we  may  add,  that  the 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  153 

evil  days  must  first  pass  away ;  Osiris  has  not  yet 
waked  *up;  he  sleeps  a  long  and  profound  sleep 
among  the  sable  Ethiopians,  to  whose  country  he 
has  been  banished,  and  where,  besides,  he  is  retained 
as  a  captive  behind  the  rock-bound  gate  of  the  city 
of  Elephantine,  known  in  modern  history  as  Ell-Sag. 
In  this  miserable  plight,  Osiris  denotes  the  dwindled 
state  of  the  Nile,  now  almost  dried  up,  or  wasted 
away  to  a  feeble,  sluggish  rivulet.  Alas!  Egypt's 
great  river  can  no  longer  supply  the  irrigating  waters 
to  the  gaping  canals:  the  quickening  fluid  tarries 
beyond  the  cataracts,  where  the  tropical  rains  alone 
can  swell  and  revive  the  stagnant  and.  expiring 
stream.  Isis,  the  grief- worn  spouse,  is  the  sister- 
earth  wedded  to  Nile-Osiris,  or  Osiris  in  his  vernal 
death,  and  pining  under  a  consuming  drought. 
Typhon  appears  in  this  tragic  scene  of  nature  as  the 
envious,  wicked  brother ;  the  cruel  tyrant  who,  in  the 
fierceness  of  his  wrath,  impels  his  fire-breathing, 
furiously  bellowing  steers  —  the  burning  winds, 
through  the  desert.*     He  has  entered  into  a  conspir- 

air  is  never  cooled  by  copious  rains ;  for  if  we  except  occasional 
showers  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  which  happen  in 
the  months  of  December,  January,  and  February,  scarcely  a  drop 
of  rain  falls  through  all  the  extent  of  Egypt.  A  slight  shower  in 
any  other  part  of  that  vast  country  is  a  rare  occurrence,  and  sel- 
dom seen  by  the  most  aged  and  observing."  —  The  American 
Edition  of  the  New  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia. 

*  The  Etesian  winds  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Lvbian 
winds  noticed  in  the  text.  They  are  north-easterly  winds,  which 
annually  commence  to  blow  about  eight  days  before  Sirius,  or  the 
dog-star,  is  visible  above  the  horizon,  and  therefore  the  Greeks 
called  them  prodromi,  or  forerunners.     They  generally  continue 


154  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

acy  with  Aso,  the  black  queen  of  torrid  Ethiopia ; 
that  is,  Ethiopia  cooperates  climatically  w^th  Ty- 
phon,  or  is  Typhonic,  inasmuch  as  in  withholding 
its  rains  till  the  destined  period,  it  prolongs  the  with- 
ering drought  of  Egypt,  and  aggravates  the  multi- 
plied misery  of  its  sweltering  inhabitants.  This 
misery  and  that  drought  last  seventy-two  days,  and 
these  are  metaphorically  designated  the  Devs,  deusii, 
or  evil  genii,  with  whom  Typhon  has  associated  his 
malversations   and   his   fortunes.      No  sooner  have 


during  a  period  of  forty  days,  and  are  said  to  be  of  a  mild  and 
genial  nature.* 

The  Lybian,  or,  perhaps,  more  properly  speaking,  the  Sahara- 
Lvbian  winds,  are  thus  described  in  "  The  American  Edition  of 
the  New  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia : "  "  The  comforts  of  Egypt 
are  diminished,  by  being  subject,  in  some  degree,  to  that  suffocat- 
ing wind  of  the  deserts,  which  spreads  terror  and  desolation.  It 
is  called  the  samiel,  the  simoon,  and  the  chamsin.  It  is  announced 
by  a  lowering,  troubled  sky,  and  sometimes  by  a  hissing  noise. 
Its  heat  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  newly  opened  oven,  and  its 
effects  are  always  distressing,  and  sometimes  insupportable.  It 
hardens  the  skin,  and  destroys  the  vegetable  growth.  It  affects 
the  lungs  by  its  pernicious  qualities,  produces  convulsions,  and 
sometimes  death.  It  is  felt  in  Africa,  India,  Syria,  and  Arabia ; 
and  it  reaches  Italy  in  a  more  modified  condition,  where  it  is 
called  the  sirocco,  and  is  guarded  against  with  anxiety  and  care." 

Upon  the  authority  of  Pliny  and  others,  I  have  applied  the 
epithet  north-easter nly  to  the  Etesian  winds,  but  Doctor  Parish 
—  apparently  upon  the  authority  of  Bruce  —  describes  them  as 
the  winds  which  blow  all  summer  from  the  north-west !  A  distin- 
guished author  calls  them  northern  breezes,  common  in  spring  and 
autumn,  and  his  designation  seems  to  be  that  which  is  nearest  the 
truth. 

*  Beloe  on  Herodotus. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  155 

these  trying  days  terminated  than  Osiris,  the  Nile, 
awakes  from  his  deathlike  lethargy. 

In  short,  Typhon  is  the  personification  of  every 
evil,  and  as  far  as  this  prolific  myth  is  concerned, 
especially  of  physical  evil ;  the  Smy,  or  the  withering 
and  consuming  fire-demon,  as  Plutarch  has  perti- 
nently styled  him.  He  is  the  unprincipled  paramour 
of  the  dissolute  Nephthys :  the  inimical  Lybian 
desert,  and  the  cragged,  tempestuous  sea-strand. 
These  form  the  main  provinces  of  his  native  empire. 
On  the  contrary,  happy  Egypt,  or  rather  the  valley 
of  the  Nile,  luxuriant  in  verdant  crops,  and  abound- 
ing in  multiplied  resources  of  wealth  and  social  pros- 
perity, is  the  fair  domain  of  the  good  mother  Isis. 

Thus  denned,  Egypt  is  the  Chernia;  that  is,  the 
black  country,  so  denominated  on  account  of  its 
rich  black  soil,  at  once  moist  and  warm,  and  fertile 
to  an  almost  incredible  degree. 

Gibbon,  waiting  of  the  agricultural  resources  of 
the  Eastern  empire,  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Jus- 
tinian, thus  refers  to  Egypt :  "  Abraham  had  been 
relieved  by  the  well-known  plenty  of  Egypt ;  the 
same  country,  a  small  and  populous  tract,  was  still 
capable  of  exporting,  each  year,  two  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  quarters  of  wheat  for  the  use  of  Con- 
stantinople." 

Soon  after  the  sun  has  entered  the  sign  of  the 
Scorpion,  on  the  thirteenth  of  November,  the  au- 
tumnal mourning  of  the  Egyptians  begins ;  for 
Osiris  dies  a  second  time  by  the  hands  of  his  blood- 
thirsty brother :  it  is  still  seed-time  in  a  part  of  the 
country,  and  as  the  seed-grain  in  the  earth  dies  —  in 
its   reproductive  development  —  so   Osiris,  contem- 


156  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

plated  as  the  retroceding  sun,  wanes  in  his  power,  or 
hyperbolically  speaking,  dies.*  Sorrow  and  wailing 
spread  gloom  and  dismay  through  the  land ;  and  Isis 
may  again  be  seen  sallying  forth  in  pursuit  of  her 
dead  and  missing  spouse.  The  days  are  rapidly  de- 
creasing; night  is  in  the  ascendant;  the  Delta,  at 
least,  is  still  more  or  less  in  a  state  of  submersion ; 
and  that  invaluable  gift  of  heaven,  water,  but  re- 
cently hailed  as  the  greatest  blessing,  begins  already 
to  be  deprecated  as  an  evil :  the  hope  of  many  is 
still  buried  under  the  turbid  floods  of  the  Nile.f 


*  Eberhard  in  his  work,  Der  Geist  des  Urcfa'istenthums,  thus 
•writes  of  Osiris :  "  In  the  sacred,  symbolical  language  of  the 
Egyptians,  Osiris  was  the  sun,  the  solar  year,  and  the  solar  cycle. 
The  eud  of  the  old,  and  the  commencement  of  the  new  year,  was 
announced  in  all  the  temples  of  Egypt ;  and  therefore  it  was  said 
that  in  every  one  of  them  was  contained  the  grave  of  Osiris :  the 
termination  of  the  solar  year.  The  conclusion  of  the  old,  and 
the  beginning  of  the  new  division  of  annual,  solar  time,  was 
ascertained  through  a  year-gnomon, composing  the  statue  of  Mem- 
non,  or  Amenophis,  with  the  article  prefixed,  Phamenoplns}  Upon 
the  mouth  of  tins  image  fell,  through  a  small  aperture,  a  ray  of 
the  sun  at  the  precise  moment  of  time  when  the  new  year  began. 
From  the  mouth  of  Memnon,  therefore,  the  birth  of  the  rising 
year  was  disclosed;  and  hence  it  was  figuratively  asserted  that 
the  statue  of  the  god  spoke,  or  made  an  oral  declaration  of  the 
great  astronomical  fact." 

•\  The  Egyptians  ordinarily  sowed  their  fields  only  after  they 
had  been  prepared  for  the  seed  by  the  natural  or  artificial  inun- 
dation of  the  Nile.  Speaking  of  those  Egyptians  who  inhabited 
that  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile  which  is  situated  between 
Memphis  and  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  Herodotus  observes,  "  As 

1  This  statue,  according  to  Tooke,  made  of  black  marble,  and  set  up  in 
the  temple  of  Serapis  at  Thebes,  performed  also  the  function  of  a  diurnal 
gnomon,  and  indicated  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun.  —  G. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  157 

The  myth  of  this  physico-theological  system  at- 
tains  considerable  diversity  of  significance   at  this 


soon  as  the  river  Las  spread  itself  over  their  lands  and  returned 
to  its  bed,  each  man  scatters  the  seed  over  his  ground,  and  Avaits 
patiently  for  the  harvest,  without  any  other  care  than  that  of 
turning  some  srvine  into  his  fields  to  tread  down  the  grain,'*  etc. 
On  this  passage  Beloe  thus  remarks :  "  Plutarch,  Eudoxus,  and 
Pliny  relate  the  same  fact,  —  about  the  swine  treading  down  the 
grain.  Yalckenaer  does  not  hesitate  to  consider  it  a  fable  in- 
vented by  Herodotus ;  and  the  sagacious  Wesseling  seems  to  be 
of  the  same  opinion,  though  he  has  not  rejected  the  expression. 
Gale,  not  thinking  swine  adapted  to  tread  down  the  grain,  has 
substituted  oxen,  because  in  Hesvchius  and  Phavorinus  the  word 
us  seems  to  signify  an  ox.  My  own  opinion  on  this  matter  is,  that 
Herodotus  is  mistaken  only  with  regard  to  the  time  when  they 
were  admitted  into  the  fields.  It  was  probably  before  the  corn 
was  sown,  that  they  might  eat  the  roots  of  the  aquatic  plants, 
which  might  prove  an  injury  to  the  grain,"  etc.  In  his  "  Eeisen 
durch  Syrien,  Pala?stina,  Aegypten,  Xubien,  nach  Arabien," 
Burkhard  says  of  the  people  of  Berbera  in  Africa,  "  They  are 
partly  nomades  and  partly  tillers  of  the  soil.  After  the  inunda- 
tion, the  latter  sow  all  the  land  which  has  been  overflowed,  with 
Durra  and  some  barley.  A  little  before  they  sow,  they  dig  up 
the  earth  with  spades:  the  plough  is  not  known  among  them." 
The  grain  chiefly  cultivated  in  Egypt,  was  a  species  of  spelt  or 
amel-corn,  commonly  known  as  the  seven-eared  wheat.  To  ena- 
ble the  stalk  of  this  grain  to  support  so  great  a  weight,  the  Crea- 
tor has  formed  it  with  a  compact  pith,  thus  distinguishing  it  from 
the  weak,  hollow  stem  of  the  rest  of  the  iriticum  family,  and  ren- 
dering it  sufficiently  firm  and  strong  to  accomplish  the  end  for 
which  it  is  designed.  Herodotus  will  throw  additional  light  upon 
the  estimation  in  which  spelt  was  held  among  the  Egyptians. 
"Wheat  and  barley,"  he  writes,  "are  common  articles  of  food  in 
other  countries,  but  they  are  in  Egypt  thought  mean  and  dis- 
graceful; the  diet  here  consists  principally  of  spelt,  a  kind  of 
corn  which  some  call  zea." 

14 


158  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

stage  of  its  development,  and  it  deserves  to  be  further 
but  briefly  unfolded.  Typhon,  as  the  malignant  god, 
is  now  the  hated  Nile ;  and  as  the  obscurer  of  the 
sun,  he  is  winter.  Osiris  —  the  beneficent  principle 
of  generation,  is  languishing;  ay,  slain  by  Nile  — 
Typhon.  Again,  Osiris  the  recovered,  or  considered 
as  the  sun  during  the  early  stages  after  its  return 
from  the  southern  hemisphere  at  the  winter-solstice, 
is  the  limping,  powerless  Harpocrates :  the  little  sun. 
Isis,  as  the  moon,  is  debilitated ;  for  she  lacks  the 
wonted  profusion  of  the  solar  rays.  But  the  dismal 
scene  suddenly  shifts  to  one  which  is  all  bright  and 
joyous,  and  on  the  eleventh  of  the  month  Tybi  —  the 
sixth  of  January,  is  a  jubilee-festival  throughout 
Egypt.  The  lamps  are  lighted  and  suspended  be- 
fore the  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  whole 
country  is  illuminated  with  the  fires  of  a  new-born 
hope.*  Osiris  is  found  :  the  sun  gains  strength,  or  is 
ascending  in  its  orbit ;  and  Sol-Osiris  has  once  more 
passed  triumphantly  through  the  dark,  depressing- 
hours  of  trial.  The  nascent,  cereal  plants  now  also 
appear,  —  clothed  in  the  green  robe  of  promise,  above 
the  surface  of  the  soil ;  it  is  their  resurrection  from  a 


*  "  In  Egypt,"  says  M.  Mallet,  "  there  is  no  rejoicing,  no  festi- 
val of  any  consideration  at  all,  unaccompanied  with  illumination." 
—  Herodotus  states  that  at  the  festal  sacrifice  at  Sais,  celebrated 
during  the  night,  in  honor  of  Minerva,  the  oil  of  the  lamps  used  on 
the  occasion,  was  mixed  with  salt.  Light  was  universally  deemed 
sacred  among  the  ancients,  and  in  salt,  it  was  generally  believed, 
resided  a  peculiar  sanctity.  Are  not,  therefore,  the  words  of  the 
Saviour,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  ;  ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,"  a  singular  coincidence  between  revelation  and  reason  ? 


IX   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  159 

slimy  grave.     Everywhere  new  life  prevails :  all  na- 
ture is  rejuvenated  —  born  again.* 


PARAGRAPH  H. 

The  Symbology  of  the  Myth. 

Sculpture,  metallurgy :  for  example,  the  golden 
calf  of  Aaron,  painting,  relievos,  inscriptions,  sacred 
history,  architectural  designs,  religious  observances, 
sacred  games,  sacred  mysteries,  etc.,  constitute  the 
prolific  source  of  hieroglyphical  language,  and  sym- 
bolical significance.  An  elucidation  of  some  of  the 
symbols  which  relate  to  the  details  of  the  preceding 
disquisition  on  this  subject,  and  which,  according  to 
the  great  work  of  the  French  savans,  Description  cle 
JJ  Egypte,  are  found  in  the  temple-sculpture  of  Phil  a 
and  Carnac,  will  here  be  attempted. 

Among  the  rich  and  varied  drapery  of  symbolical 
devices,  the  following  pictorial  personages  play  an 
important  part.  The  first  is  a  small  figure,  dressed  in 
the  Egyptian  habit,  with  the  usual  head  gear,  and  up- 
raised hands,  seemingly  indicative  of  supplication.  It 
is  probably  meant  for  a  priest,  in  whose  person  the 
Egyptian  people  are  represented :  he  petitions  Heaven 
for  the  annual  blessing;  that  is,  for  a  high  flood  of  the 


*  After  Christianity  had  been  introduced  into  Egypt,  the  fa- 
thers of  the  church  deemed  it  advisable,  in  order  to  wean  the  hea- 
thens from  a  superstitious  observance,  instead  of  the  Egyptian  fes- 
tival, celebrated  on  the  sixth  of  January,  in  honor  of  the  advent 
of  the  savior  Osiris,  to  set  apart  that  day  in  commemoration  of 
the  birth  of  Christ.  Candlemas,  in  the  Christian  church,  has  its 
origin  in  the  Egyptian  feast  of  lamps,  —  the  birth  festival  of  Osiris. 


160  THE   HEATIIEN   RELIGION 

Nile,  on  the  inundations  of  which  depend  the  fertility 
of  Egypt,  and  the  prosperity  of  its  inhabitants.  Be- 
fore him  stands  Hermes,  whose  form  is  human,  ex- 
cepting the  head,  which  is  that  of  an  ibis.  In  his 
hand  is  contained  a  long,  serrated  rod,  which  declines 
at  the  top,  and  shoots  out  into  three  connected  lines. 
To  one  of  the  serratures  of  this  rod,  Hermes  points 
significantly,  while  he  intently  eyes  Osiris,  who  is 
seated  in  the  centre  of  a  symbolical  group,  and  who, 
though  represented  in  human  form,  is  recognized  as 
the  god  by  the  key  of  the  Nile — the  hilted-cross, 
and  one  of  the  distinctive  badges  of  his  divinity. 
The  deity  holds  an  obtuse  cone  under  the  rod,  or 
Nilometer,  evidently  to  balance  it,  and  thus  enable 
Hermes  to  determine  the  increment  of  the  Nile.  Be- 
hind Osiris,  stands  Isis,  entreatingly  raising  her  hands 
towards  heaven,  and  seconding  the  intercession  of 
the  priest  in  behalf  of  Egypt.  Hermes,  the  ibis- 
headed  god,  is  the  sacred  scribe  of  Osiris,  and  the 
celestial  geometrician,  who,  pointing  to  the  Nilom- 
eter, and  eying  the  god  of  nature,  inquires  the  de- 
termining point  of  the  Nilic  flood.  A  singular  relief, 
probably  denoting  the  subsiding  of  the  Nile,  and  the 
happy  consequences  of  its  inundation,  represents  a 
male  figure  of  large  dimensions,  reclining  upon  a 
bed.  A  lion  skin  covers  his  body,  and  his  head  is 
supported  upon  the  right  arm,  while  a  fantastic  bird, 
with  the  body  of  a  vulture  peculiar  to  Ethiopia,  and 
the  head  of  a  youth,  decorated  with  a  symbolical  cap, 
hovers  over  him.  His  membrum  virile,  indicative  of 
a  beneficent  regeneration  of  nature,  protrudes  to  a  pro- 
digious size.  At  the  head  and  foot  of  the  bed,  stand 
two  females  who  are  supposed  to  denote  the  celestial 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  lf)l 

and  the  terrestrial  Isis,  the  one  bearing  a  globe  in  her 
hand,  and  ox-horns  upon  her  head,  and  the  other 
holding  a  greatly  elongated  rectangle,  upon  which  is 
placed  a  vase.  They  evidently  await  the  conclusion 
of  the  scene  before  them.  Behind  the  goddess  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed,  appear  two  rows  of  personages,  one 
above  the  other.  The  two  first  figures  in  the  first 
row,  have  male -bodies  and  frog-heads  ;  those  in  the 
centre,  also  two  in  number,  have  the  bodies  of  fe- 
males, decked  with  aquatic  serpents  :  both  pairs  have 
their  sandals  ornamented  with  jackal-heads.  The 
two  last  personages  in  the  row,  seem  to  be  the  Egyp- 
tian god  Thoth,  with  the  head  of  an  ibis,  and  Har- 
pocrates,  readily  known  by  his  compressed  legs.* 
This  crippled  divinity  holds  a  wand  in  his  hands, 
upon  which  a  lotus  leaf  is  represented.  Behind  the 
Isis  last  mentioned,  stands  a  falcon-headed  man,  who, 
armed  with  a  club,  is  in  the  act  of  slaying  a  fet- 
tered little  fellow,  having  the  head  of  a  hare,  and 
whose  long  ears  he  has  firmly  grasped  with  his  left 
hand.  To  the  rear  of  this  hare-man  killer,  is  still 
another  personage,  —  a  priest,  who  brings  an  offering 
of  two  vases,  from  the  bases  of  which  are  suspended 
holy  ribands,  etc. 


*  Thoth  is  only  another  name  for  Hermes.  Anubis  is  also  an 
appellation  to  which  the  same  god  responds.  With  the  name  of 
Thoth  or  Hermes  especially,  the  Egyptians  associated  the  ideas  of 
all  that  is  profound  and  admirable  in  science  or  literature,  and  to 
this  divinity,  regarded  and  adored  as  the  fountain-head  of  discour- 
sive  knowledge,  thev  therefore  traced  the  origin  of  all  the  intel- 
lectual  attainments  and  moral  preminence  of  mankind. 

14* 


162  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

In  the  opinion  of  the  French  savans,  this  symboli- 
cal tableau  relates  to  Egypt  and  the  Nile.  The  reclin- 
ing figure  is  Osiris,  symbolizing  the  Nile,  which, 
metaphorically  speaking,  is  on  the  point  of  awaken- 
ing from  its  lethargy ;  and  the  lion-skin  with  which 
the  god  is  covered,  denotes  the  entrance  of  the  sun 
into  Leo,  now  Cancer ;  the  period  of  the  year  when 
the  waters  of  that  river  attain  their  greatest  height. 
The  grotesque  bird  is  emblematical  of  the  fruitful- 
ness  and  plenty  which  the  flood  of  the  Nile,  descend- 
ing from  Ethiopia,  pours  into  the  lap  of  Egypt.  Its 
juvenile  head  imports  renovated  nature.  The  little 
hare-man,  about  to  be  slain  for  a  sacrifice,  announces 
to  us  that  the  decisive  time  has  arrived  when  the 
hare  must  forsake  the  flat,  low  country,  and  take 
refuge  on  the  hills  and  in  the  deserts.  This  quadru- 
ped was  also  a  symbol  of  fecundity  among  the  an- 
cients, and  therefore  a  fit  emblem  of  the  fertility  of 
Egypt,  consequent  upon  the  felicitous  inundation  of 
the  Nile.  The  serpent-decked  and  frog-headed  per- 
sonages, with  the  jackal-headed  sandals,  are  declara- 
tive of  the  fact  that  on  the  arrival  of  the  Nilic  flood, 
frogs  and  serpents  are  swept  away ;  and  that  they 
can  only  find  a  secure  asylum  in  the  desert  —  the 
usual  haunt  of  the  jackal.  As  has  already  been 
stated,  the  country  of  Egypt,  so  vitally  interested  in 
the  consequences  of  the  inundation,  is  represented  in 
the  person  of  the  entreating  Isis.  The  presentation 
of  the  vases,  it  is  supposed,  signifies  a  drink-offering 
from  the  incipient  flood ;  and  according  to  Savigny's 
"  Histoire  Naturelle  et  Mythologue  d'  Ibis,"  the  ibis- 
head  of  Hermes  is  characteristic  of  the  overflowing 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  163 

of  the  Nile.*  The  same  is  true  of  the  wreaths  and 
leaves  of  the  lotus  which  occur  in  this  class  of  artis- 
tic symbols.f    At  last  Osiris  awakes :  the  Nile  bursts 


*  The  Egyptian  ibis,  properly  so  called,  and  known  in  natural 
history  as  the  Ardea  ibis,  belongs  to  the  order  of  birds  distin- 
guished in  natural  history  as  the  grallce,  or  waders.  Its  color  is 
entirely  black ;  its  beak  remarkably  crooked ;  its  neck  long  and 
flexible ;  while  its  legs  are  both  long  and  sinewy :  its  general  ap- 
pearance is  a  good  deal  like  that  of  the  stork,  and  in  size  it  is 
equal  to  the  hen-raven.  By  destroying  the  serpents,  frogs,  toads, 
etc.,  which  bred  in  the  miry  ground  and  slimy  pools  after  the 
ebbing  of  the  Nile,  this  bird  deserved  and  received  the  esteem 
and  veneration  of  the  ancient  Egyptians ;  and  so  highly  were  its 
services  valued,  that  to  kill  one  was  a  capital  crime. 

From  this  view  of  the  subject,  founded  upon  the  authority  of 
Herodotus,  Hasselquist,  etc.,  Savigny  and  others  materially  differ, 
and  instead  of  recognizing  the  sacred  ibis  of  Egypt  in  the  preced- 
ing description,  they  define  it  to  be  the  same  as  the  Numenius  albus 
of  Cuvier  —  the  more  common  species  of  the  two ;  which  they 
admit  devoured  the  worms  and  insects  which  lay  scattered  over 
the  muddy,  nitrous  precipitations  of  the  overflowed  fields  of  the 
Egyptians ;  and  affirm  that  it  was  held  sacred,  —  not  on  account 
of  its  dietetic  habits,  but  simply  as  a  hieroglyphical  symbol  of  the 
inundation  of  the  Nile ;  while  they  deny  its  generally  conceded 
reputation  as  a  destroyer  of  ophidian  and  other  reptiles.  I  will 
only  add  that  in  respect  to  the  phagous  habits  and  uses  of  the  bird 
in  question,  my  judgment  prompts  me  to  side  with  the  former 
opinion. 

f  The  lotus  is  a  water-lily,  which  grows  upon  the  banks  of 
streams,  the  edges  of  ponds,  etc.  The  lotus  of  the  Nile  plays  an 
important  part  in  the  hieroglyphical  devices  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians. Indeed,  it  was  anciently  everywhere  deemed  a  sacred  plant 
among  the  people  of  the  East.  According  to  Kreuzer,  botany 
recognizes  it  under  the  name  of  nelumbium  speciosum.  It  was  a 
fundamental  principle  in  the  cosmogony  of  the  heathens,  that 
every  thing  originated  from  Rhea  —  Rem,  fluency,  or  the  prime- 
val humidity,  and  the  feminine  principle  of  creation,  in  connec- 


164  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

its  fetters,  and  foaming  and  surging,  it  wildly  bounds 
from  its  rocky  bed,  watering  and  quickening  expiring 


tion  with  Saturn,  or  time.  Such,  too,  was  the  origin  of  Osiris  and 
Isis.  Hence,  in  the  first  place,  the  lotus  is  the  symbol  of  water 
generally,  as  the  genetic  element  of  nature,  and  of  the  thrice  holy 
Nile  especially.  Besides,  as  the  deities  just  mentioned,  were  both 
brother  and  sister,  and  wife  and  husband,  even  prior  to  their  birth, 
the  lotus,  in  its  organs  of  fructification,  the  stamens  and  pistil, 
symbolizes  at  once  this  twofold  relation  of  the  celestial  pair.1 
Therefore,  in  the  second  place,  as  the  Nile,  after  a  period  of  lan- 
guishment,  revives  again  ;  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  after  a  protracted 
drought  manifests  new  life  and  vigor ;  and  as  the  sun,  or  Osiris, 
dies  towards  the  winter  solstice,  and  subsequently  arises  again 
from  death  and  the  grave :  Isis,  as  the  moon  and  land  of  Egypt, 
also  alternately  suffering  and  rejoicing  with  her  solar  and  Nilic 
spouse,  so  the  lotus,  which  likewise  has  its  reverses  of  fortune,  or 
mutations  of  growth  and  decay,  is  again  the  expressive  symbol  of 
life  succeeding  death :  a  living  historical  evidence  of  the  truth  of 
the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  and  of  a  life  to  come. 

The  lotus  has  its  diurnal  sleep  and  vigil,  as  well  as  its  annual 
death-sleep  and  revivification.  In  the  night,  deprived  of  the  ge- 
nial solar  stimulus,  it  folds  up  its  leaves  and  petals :  thus  literally 
retiring  to  rest :  while  during  the  dav,  these  organs  disclose  them- 
selves  again,  the  flower-cup  enlarging  itself  constantly  as  the  orb 
of  day  rises  towards  its  meridinal  altitude.  Behold,  everywhere 
are  suffering  and  death,  yet  everywhere  suffering  and  death  arc 
followed  by  a  new  life  and  a  glorious  victory  !  Of  all  these  trans- 
mutations, or  antagonistic  elements  of  the  powers  and  organic 
forms  of  nature,  thus  personified  and  allegorized,  ever  dying  and 
yet  living,  the  lotus  is  the  pregnant  symbol.  Hence  we  find  the 
stem,  the  leaves,  and  the  blue  flower  of  this  hieroglyphical  queen 
of  plants,  in  a  thousand  combinations,  decorating  the  works  of 
sculpture  and  engraving  of  antiquity. 

1  The  Egyptian  lotus  being  described  as  monogynous,  this  fact  evidently 
assigns  it  a  place  among  the  Ni/mphceacece,  or  water-lily  family  of  plants, 
and  not  among  the  Nelumbiacece,  or  nelumbo-division  of  phytonic  produc- 
tions. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL    DEVELOPMENT.  165 

nature.  In  the  month  of  May,  the  first  symptoms 
of  a  swelling  of  the  river  may  be  observed,  but 
before  the  lion  makes  his  appearance,  or,  in  other 
words,  before  the  summer  solstice,  when  the  sun  en- 
ters the  zodiacal  sign  of  Leo,  the  saving  flood  does 
not  delight  the  eye  or  greet  the  ear  of  the  anxiously 
expectant  Egyptian.  As  soon,  however,  as  this 
important  astronomical  event  takes  place,  it  has 
attained  its  maximum  height,  which,  as  it  appears 
from  Larcher  on  Herodotus,  is  variously  estimated. 
"  The  majority  of  travellers  inform  us,"  writes  this 
author,  "  that  on  an  average  the  water  usually  rises 
every  year  to  the  height  of  twenty-two  cubits.  In 
1702  it  rose  to  twenty-three  cubits,  four  inches  ;  in 
the  year  preceding  it  rose  to  twenty-two  cubits, 
eighteen  inches ;  according  to  these  travellers,  the 
favorable  height  is  from  twenty-two  to  twenty-three 
cubits ;  according  to  Herodotus,  from  fifteen  to  six- 
teen.    The  difference  is  seven." 

This  striking  discrepancy  of  opinion  on  a  subject 
so  interesting,  and  for  so  many  ages  open  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  historian  and  the  philosopher,  is 
remarkable,  though  still  incomplete,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  statement  in  the  Sacred 
Geography  of  Doctor  Parish.  "  While  the  Nile 
overflows  only  to  the  perpendicular  height  of  twelve 
cubits,"  says  this  writer,  "  a  famine  necessarily  fol- 
lows in  Egypt,  nor  is  the  famine  less  certain,  should 
it  exceed  sixteen  cubits,  as  Pliny  says ;  so  that  the 
just  height  of  the  inundation  is  between  twelve  and 
sixteen  cubits."  The  Nile,  now  in  the  full  tide  of 
prosperity,  may  be  said  to  be  fairly  in  its  element. 
It  rushes  with  irresistible  impetuosity  over  the  cata- 


166  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

racts,  and  roaring  and  dashing,  still  augmenting  its 
giant  proportions ;  and  still  accelerating  its  unbridled 
velocity,  it  arrives  in  Egypt,  mocking  all  barriers  and 
despising  every  restraint,  the  country  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, from  the  environs  of  Syene  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean, is,  if  history  merits  credit,  a  vast  archipelago, 
and  the  inhabitants  are  suddenly  converted  from 
landmen  into  Argonauts ;  and  boats  are  now  their 
principal  and  often  their  only  means  of  intercom- 
munication.* At  last  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  Sep- 
tember dawns  upon  a  people  buoyed  on  the  pinions 
of  ecstatic  hope :  it  is  a  day  of  festivity  and  rejoicing 
throughout  all  Egypt.  It  is  now  that,  under  the 
shouts  and  paeans  of  the  happy  votaries  of  the  Nile, 


*  The  inundations  of  the  Nile  have  been  more  or  less  extensive 
in  different  ages  of  the  world.  A  few  facts  may  serve  to  illus- 
trate this  proposition.  "  The  country  of  Egypt,"  says  the  clerical 
geographer  above  quoted,  "  is  not  overflown,  as  some  writers  have 
asserted.  In  Upper  Egypt  the  high  banks  always  prevent  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  water.  No  part  is  overflown  except  the  lower  part 
of  the  Delta ;  the  lands  near  the  river  are  watered  by  machines, 
and  where  the  breadth  of  the  country  renders  it  necessary,  canals 
are  cut  to  lead  the  water  from  the  river;  while  two  hundred  thou- 
sand oxen  are  employed  in  drawing  water  from  the  pits  and 
canals  to  irrigate  their  fields  and  gardens."  Memphis  was  south 
of  the  Delta,  and  yet  there  was  a  time  when  the  country  above  it 
was  subject  to  the  inundations  of  the  Nile,  as  it  appears  from  the 
testimony  of  the  Father  of  History.  "  In  the  reign  of  Moeris," 
writes  he,  "  as  soon  as  the  river  rose  to  eight  cubits,  all  the  lands 
above  Memphis  were  overflowed  ;  since  which  a  period  of  about 
nine  hundred  years  has  elapsed :  but  at  present,  unless  the  river 
rises  to  sixteen,  or  at  least  fifteen  cubits,  its  waters  do  not  reach 
those  lands."  This  change  in  the  inundation  of  the  Nile,  is  attrib- 
uted to  an  increased  elevation  of  its  banks. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  167 

the  sluices  of  the  beneficent  stream  are  opened ;  and 
that  couriers  are  sent  in  every  direction  through  the 
country  to  announce  the  propitious  event:  every- 
where the  gay  notes  of  gladness  may  be  heard; 
pleasure  beams  from  every  eye,  and  every  counte- 
nance is  radiant  with  the  realization  of  a  better  hope ; 
and  thus  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  interesting 
anniversary-jubilees  of  the  nation,  ushers  in  its  inun- 
dation-celebration.* 

In  the  foregoing  disquisition,  the  striking  physical 
and  agrarian  elements  peculiar  to  an  Egyptian  year, 
though  wrought  up  into  an  allegorical  myth,  cannot 
have  failed  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  reader, 
and  to  excite  in  him  a  wish  to  learn  more  of  the 
theological  system  of  the  people  of  the  Nile :  peo- 
ple early  and  justly  renowned  for  their  varied 
wisdom  and  superior  civilization.  According  to 
Diodorus  Siculus,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  people 
of  the  Nile  to  present  as  an  offering  to  the  dead 
Osiris,  their  wasted  and  shrivelled  river,  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  vessels  filled  with  milk  :  a  number 
corresponding  to  the  days  in  the  old  Egyptian  year. 


*  In  its  more  extensive  inundations,  Herodotus  informs  us,  the 
Kile  does  not  only  overflow  the  Delta,  but  a  part  of  the  Lybian 
and  Arabian  frontiers,  extending,  on  an  average,  two  days'  jour- 
nev  on  each  side.  I  may  add,  that  though  the  inundation  of  the 
Kile  does  not,  as  a  general  thing,  wholly  cover  the  more  elevated 
situations  of  the  Delta,  or  lower  part  of  Egypt;  yet  to  provide 
against  any  sudden  emergency,  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants  are 
usually  built  upon  artificial  mounds  to  secure  them  against  an  ex- 
traordinary rise  of  the  water,  either  from  natural  or  accidental 
causes. 


168  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

A  similar  practice  was  observed  at  Acanthus,  where 
the  priests  every  day  poured  water  taken  from  the 
Nile  from  three  hundred  and  sixty  urns  into  a  barrel 
which  was  full  of  holes.  This  singular  observance 
may  have  served  the  double  purpose  of  noting  diur- 
nal time  and  of  vividly  representing  its  transient 
nature.  Horus  —  the  sun  in  the  summer  solstice, 
now  begins  to  play  an  important  part  in  this  inter- 
esting and  complex  myth.  From  April  till  that 
period  of  the  year  when  this  solar  lion  appears,  Ty- 
phon  reigns,  or,  in  other  words,  scorching  heat  and 
fatal  diseases  prevail  in  Egypt.  The  earth  but  lately 
clothed  in  the  verdant  robe  of  life  and  beauty,  is 
dried  up :  Isis  has  become  a  withered  mummy,  and 
the  face  of  nature  presents  a  desolate  and  mournful 
aspect.  Horus,  the  intense  heat  of  midsummer, 
assumes  the  reins  in  our  planetary  system,  and  the 
blessings  of  the  Nile  are  revived ;  the  murdered 
Osiris  is  revenged,  and  he  rises  up  from  death,  and 
lives  again  in  Horus,  his  mighty  son :  the  sun  in  the 
vigor  of  its  meridian  altitude  and  glory,  generating 
the  greatest  degree  of  light  and  heat ;  bringing 
about  the  Nilic  flood,  and  making  Egypt  fair  and 
fruitful  like  a  paradise  planted  and  tilled  by  God; 
eradicating  the  seeds  of  pestilential  miasmas ;  ban- 
ishing want  and  sad  forebodings  from  the  land ;  and 
proving  himself  the  physical  savior  of  his  devoted 
worshippers. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  169 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CONCLUDING  REMARKS  ON  THE  PERSONIFICATION 
AND  SYMBOLOGY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  YEAR,  CONSID- 
ERED   IN    ITS    SIDERAL    AND    AGRARIAN    ATTRIBUTES. 

Preface. 

According  to  the  elaborate  metaphysical  system 
of  the  Egyptian  priests,  Osiris  is  the  Supreme  Being. 
To  form  a  true  conception  of  this  article  of  heathen 
faith,  it  will  be  necessary  again  briefly  to  advert  to  the 
doctrine  of  emanation,  or  evolution,  common  among 
the  ancient  oriental  people.  Agreeably  to  it,  the  God 
of  gods  is  not  merely  contemplated  as  a  unity,  but  also 
analyzed  and  personified  according  to  his  attributes ; 
and  this  species  of  analysis  of  the  highest  branch 
of  metaphysics,  is  conducted  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  hypostatize  or  individualize  every  inherent  qual- 
ity of  the  Supreme  Being.  And  as  each  attribute 
of  God  is  God,  or  identical'  with  the  entire  Godhead, 
it  follows  that  every  adjective  evolution  of  the  Deity, 
as  Osiris,  considered  in  its  highest  potency,  is  itself 
the  Supreme  Being ;  or,  in  other  words,  Osiris  is  one 
of  the  manifestations  of  the  Eternal,  hypostatized, 
first,  as  Amun,  or  Ammon- Jupiter,  or  as  might,  inas- 
much as  he  reveals  or  brings  to  light  the  hidden  ideas 
or  prototypes  of  the  material  world;  secondly,  as 
Phthas  or  wisdom,  implying  his  demiurgic  perfec- 
tion, inasmuch  as  he  realizes  the  ideal  world,  and 
stamps  upon  it  the  completion  which  unerring  truth 

15 


170  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

and  the  highest  artistic  skill  alone  can  confer; 
thirdly,  as  Osiris  or  goodness,  inasmuch  as  he  is 
beneficent  and  the  author  of  all  good  gifts,  the 
source  of  all  life  and  every  blessing. 

Osiris  was  the  name  which  the  Supreme  Deity 
bore  in  the  popular  belief  of  the  Egyptians  ;  but  in 
the  metaphysical  or  sacerdotal  creed,  Osiris  was 
called  Kneph,  or  Amnion,  names  which  correspond 
to  the  Agatliodaimon  among  the  Greeks,  and  under 
which  he  held  the  same  superior  rank.  In  his  vulgar 
acceptation,  however,  he  is  the  sun,  and  as  such  the 
adoptive  son  of  Amun  or  Amraon ;  that  is,  Osiris 
the  sun,  or  the  fountain  of  material  light  and  heat,  is 
merely  an  emanation  of  Kneph,  or  Amraon,  the 
source  of  metaphysical  light  and  empyrean  fire. 
Lastly,  Osiris  as  the  Nile,  is  nothing  else,  as  Plu- 
tarch observes,  but  an  emanation,  a  reflected  ray,  of 
the  God  of  light,  or  Kneph,  considered  as  the  mate- 
rialized blessing  of  water. 


PARAGRAPH    I. 

Osiris. 

As  the  son  of  Aurora,  Osiris  is  identical  with 
Memnon.  Hence  in  his  annual  solar  resurrection 
from  death,  he  is  Osiris  Memnon :  the  young  but 
growing  sun.  The  hieroglyphical  eye  is  Osiris,  or 
the  sun  in  its  culmination,  when  it  is  in  the  sign  of 
Leo.*     Osiris,  or  the  sun  in   Taurus,  is  the   second 


*  In  the  age  to  which  the  text  refers,  the  constellations  of  the 
zodiac  and  the  signs  of  the  ecliptic  still  corresponded,  and  the  sum- 
mer solstice  occurred  in  Leo  and  not  in  Cancer,  as  at  present. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  171 

stage  or  mode  of  the  vernal  sun,  whereas  in  Aries,  the 
sun  is  not  Osiris,  but  Ammon,  or  Amun  —  the  first 
light  or  solar  phasis  of  incipient  spring.  Amun  and 
Ammon  being  synonymous  terms,  and  expressive  of 
the  same  god,  Osiris,  in  view  of  the  facts  just  stated,  is 
said  to  be  the  adopted  son  of  Amun,  or  according  to 
the  Greek  version  of  the  myth,  of  Jupiter- Ammon.* 
When  the  sun  is  in  Taurus,  at  the  time  of  the  new 
moon,  and  therefore  in  conjunction  with  the  queen 
of  night,  our  myth,  according  to  the  laws  of  allegor- 
ical interpretation,  teaches  us  that  Osiris,  or  the  sun- 
taurus,  impregnates  the  moon-vacca,  or  Isis,  and  that 
then  vegetation  begins  to  nourish  upon  the  earth ; 
that  is,  the  solar  influence,  considered  as  a  masculine 
power,  communicates  the  principles  of  vegetation 
when  it  overshadows  the  moon,  and  the  comely  and 
precious  fruit  of  this  sideral  union,  is  vegetable  life 
and  beauty.  Here  Osiris  and  Isis  are  represented  to 
us  at  once  as  the  deities  and  as  the  poivers  of  nature, 
and  as  being  virtually  the  same  as  the  Eswara  and 
Isi  of  the  ancient  Hindoos.  At  last  the  son  of  Amun, 
Osiris,  gets  to  be  Amun  himself:  the  son  absorb- 
ing the  father  or  resuming  his  primeval  union  with 
him,  and  being  thus  one  with  him,  and  he  is  now, 
metaphysically  contemplated,  the  Supreme  Being 
himself.  During  the  period  of  the  winter  solstice, 
Osiris  becomes  Harpocrates :  his  rays  shot  forth  ob- 
liquely from  death  and  the  grave,  are  pale  and  pow- 
erless, but  no  sooner  has  the  sun  begun  to  ascend 


*  Jupiter  is  derived  from  jui'ans  pater,  assisting  the  father. 
Osiris,  or  Jupiter,  therefore,  is  the  immediate  emanation  of  Ammon, 
the  first  begotten  son  of  the  father ! 


172  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

w 

from  the  southern  to  the  northern  tropic,  or  entered 
the  sign  of  Capricorn,  than  Osiris  manifests  himself 
in  the  incipient  stages  of  a  new  life-  and  strength,  or 
is  the  juvenile  Hercules,  who  in  the  winter  period  of 
his  existence  and  reign,  is  the  analogue  of  the  ado- 
lescent Harpocrates  in  spring.  Horus,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  is  Osiris  in  the  sign  of  Leo,  and  like 
his  great  sire,  he  often  appears  with  the  head  of  a 
hawk,  which  differs  only  from  the  same  symbol  of 
the  father  in  the  brighter  hues  of  its  plumage.* 

The  Egyptians  defined  and  adored  three  orders  of 
gods,  and  in  the  vigor  of  his  strength  and  the  glory 
of  his  reign,  Osiris  claimed  and  received  a  place  in 
the  first,  while  in  his  passion  and  death  he  descended 
to  the  inferiority  of  the  third.  In  this  state  of  hu- 
mility and  passive  endurance,  his  supreme  godhead 
was  graciously  associated  with  earth  and  humanity, 
and  he  was  emphatically — god  in  the  flesh  I 'X  It  is 
entirely  erroneous  to  suppose  that  any  of  the  Egyp- 
tian deities  have  been  mere  mortals,  deified  on  ac- 
count of  heroic  deeds,  or  eminent  social  virtues : 
these  people,  as  is  proved  by  the  annals  of  their  his- 
tory and  the  genius  of  their  religion,  never  practised 
or  sanctioned  apotheosis.  On  the  contrary,  the  germ 
and  essence  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  is  the  devout 
contemplation  of  nature  in  its  admirable  laws  and 

*  The  sacred  hawk  of  the  Egyptians,  is  of  large  size  and  brown 
color.  Its  eves  are  exceedingly  bright,  and  hence  the  eye  of  this 
bird  was  the  honored  symbol  under  which  the  ancient  Egyptians 
worshipped  Horus  and  Osiris,  as  the  sun  in  its  various  phases  of 
greatest  power,  and  refulgent  splendor.  It  deserves  further  to  be 
remarked,  that  in  his  culminating  might  and  dazzling  majesty, 
Horus  is  emphatically  known  as  Arueris. 


*~i 


A 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  173 

wonderful  manifestations,  and  the  recognition  and 
worship  of  a  superintending  providence,  under  the 
diversified  forms  of  personification.  Among  the  hie- 
roglyph ical  symbols  which  illustrate  and  define  the 
tlu-ological  creed  that  forms  the  theme  of  our  discus- 
sion, a  scourge  grasped  by  the  hand  of  a  god,  was 
indicative  of  power  and  authority.  Sitting  upon  the 
flower-cup  of  the  lotus,  imports  that  the  regenera- 
tive waters  of  the  Nile  shall  never  fail,  and  that  life 
shall  never  be  annihilated. 

In  the  opinion  of  Jomard,  based  upon  his  re- 
searches among  the  antiquities  of  Egypt,  the  ac- 
couchement of  Isis  implies  the  winter  solstice,  and 
the  incipient  growth  of  vegetation  at  that  season  in 
Egypt  —  the  period  in  the  winter  signs  of  the  ecliptic 
when  the  North  pole  begins  again  to  lean  towards 
the  sun.  The  infant  god,  nourished  at  the  breast  of 
Isis,  signifies  both  the  commencement  of  vegetable 
growth,  and  the  increase  of  the  days  from  the  first 
of  January  when  the  earth  is  in  perihelion.  As  a 
symbol  of  filial  love,  Osiris  bears  the  head  of  the 
hoopoo  on  his  staff  or  sceptre ;  because,  as  it  is  as- 
serted, the  bird  responding  to  this  name,  supported 
and  cherished  its  superannuated  and  helpless  parents: 
a  noble  trait  of  disinterested  affection  and  self-denial, 
which  it  must  be  honorable  for  a  god  to  excite,  or 
useful  to  imitate  !  A  sphinx  presenting  an  image  of 
Canobus,  a  god  whose  head  is  human,  while  the  re- 
mainder of  the  body  assumes  a  globular  form,  and 
is  supposed  to  represent  the  spherical  Nile-cup,  is 
emblematical  of  the  fact  that  this  cup  is  the  myste- 
rious mundane  cup,  containing  the  primordial  ele- 
ments of  fire  and  water ;  and  that  being  offered  to 

15* 


174  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  great  god  of  nature,  he  is  to  determine  the  just 
proportion  of  the  mixture. 

Serapis  also  appears  under  the  symbolical  figure 
of  Canobus.  After  the  era  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
that  god  assumed  the  place  of  Osiris,  and  was  at 
once  a  beneficent  and  a  malignant  deity,  uniting 
Osiris  and  Typhon  in  one  person  ;  yet  in  such  pro- 
portions that  the  Osirian  attributes  in  his  character 
predominated  over  the  Typhonian.  According  to 
Jablonski,  Serapis  is  the  sun  in  autumn,  as  Harpoc- 
rates  is  the  feeble,  obscured  winter-sun ;  while  Am- 
nion, and  to  a  certain  extent  Hercules,  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  Som,  symbolize  the  god  of  day  in  the 
vernal  equinox. 

•PARAGRAPH   II. 

Hercules. 

Hercules  appears  in  the  category  of  those  gods., 
who  benignantly  control  the  year,  and  who  are  at 
once  the  year  and  the  gods  of  the  year.  As  the  in- 
fant sun,  or  the  sun  in  the  sign  of  Aries,  he  passed  un- 
der the  name  of  Som  or  Sem.  This  place  in  Egyp- 
tian theogony,  is  in  the  second  order  of  the  twelve 
great  gods  of  the  Nile.  As  such,  he  is  the  same  as 
the  Olympian  Hercules  of  the  Greeks,  to  whom  those 
people  offered  divine  honors  ;  while  to  the  son  of 
Amphitryon  or  Alcmena,  the  fictitious  personifica- 
tion of  the  former,  they  simply  paid  the  rites  of  a 
hero.  As  Som  or  Som-Hercules,  in  the  more  exten- 
sive import  of  the  term,  he  is  not  only  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  struggling  or  wrestling  year,  but  also 
of  virtue,  arete,  as  well  as  of  the  fiery  energy  of  ethi- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  175 

cal  enthusiasm.  He  is  a  beneficent  divinity,  and 
allied  by  the  closest  consanguinity  to  the  good  god 
Osiris.  Like  Osiris,  he  is  an  emanation  of  the  su- 
preme and  immortal  divinity,  and  Amun,  the  prime- 
val source  of  light,  is  his  illustrious  sire.*  To  him 
his  eyes  are  steadily  directed  from  the  zodiacal  man- 
sion of  Aries  ;  and,  submissive  to  his  parental  behest, 
he  diligently  pursued  the  sideral  path  pointed  out  to 
him  as  the  sphere  of  his  actions,  and  the  bright  do- 
main of  his  power.  Hercules  is  emphatically  the 
propitious  power,  manifested  in  the  blessings  which 
the  prolific  waters  of  the  Nile  disseminate  over 
Egypt.  When  it  is  asserted  of  him  that  he  gagged 
or  strangled  Antams,  the  son  of  Posidon  and  the 
earth,f  the  meaning  is  that  he  overcame,  or  at  least 
effectually  resisted  the  destructive  sand-showers  of 
this  ill-willed  giant  of  the  desert,  by  the  opposing 
flood  of  the  Nile,  and  the  introduction  of  canals  into 
the  Delta,  especially  towards  the  Lybian  desert,  and 
making  them  of  such  a  width  that  the  stifling  winds 
of  that  arid  and  arenaceous  region,  could  no  longer 


*  The  Greeks  derive  his  origin  from  Zeus,  their  Pater-Peus, 
and  Asteria  —  a  derivation  "which  is  essentially  the  same  as  the 
Egyptian ;  but  in  the  language  of  their  oracles,  they  called  him 
simply  Asteria's  son,  and  understood  Venus  by  the  astral  god- 
dess. According  to  both  genealogical  accounts,  this  god  is  there- 
fore an  evolution  or  efflux  of  the  -immaterial  fire ;  the  rudimentary 
germ  of  the  creative  principle  —  Pan-Mendes. 

f  As  Hercules,  in  the  course  of  the  annual  cycle,  succeeded 
Osiris,  so  Antaeus  assumed  the  place  of  Typhon  :  each  divinity 
had  liis  distinct  trials  and  enjoyments.  Hercules,  in  particular, 
shared  not  only  the  prosperous,  but  also  the  adverse  events,  in  the 
life  of  the  kindred  deity  Osiris. 


176  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

drive  the  sands  across  the  ample  channels.  Steadily 
persevering  in  the  execution  of  a  laudable  enterprise, 
he  opposed  an  additional  barrier  to  the  devastating 
encroachments  of  the  obnoxious  and  justly  dreaded 
sands,  by  opening  numerous  ducts  for  the  purpose  of 
irrigation  ;  and  by  thus  wisely  intersecting  Lower 
Egypt  with  a  seasonable  and  healthful  aqueous  cir- 
culation, he  happily  succeeded  in  still  more  effectu- 
ally vanquishing  Antaeus,  the  surly,  mischievous  mon- 
arch of  sand-plains  and  sand-storms. 

Hercules  alone,  the  puissant  god,  and  invinci- 
ble wrestler,  could  accomplish  labors  at  once  so  ex- 
tensive, so  arduous,  and  so  useful :  no  wonder  that 
mythic  fame  accorded  to  him  the  honor  of  sustaining 
the  weight  of  heaven  upon  his  Atlas  shoulders  !  His 
name  and  daring  still  survive  in  the  record  of  the 
Heraclean  canal.  Numerous  cities  bore  his  name 
and  commemorated  his  deeds ;  and  they  were  all 
situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  or  on  the  banks  of 
the  canals  :  thus  proclaiming  to  future  ages  that  next 
to  the  Nile,  Hercules  was  the  most  munificent  dis- 
penser of  water  to  the  often  thirsty,  ay,  parched  laud 
of  Egypt ;  the  most  renowned  hero -god ;  and  the 
illustrious  prototype  of  the  Jewish  patriarch's  vice- 
regal son,  whose  name  and  merits  rank  among  those 
of  the  earliest  and  most  successful  patrons  of  internal 
improvement.  In  reference  to  Egypt,  he  is  therefore 
properly  surnamed  Canobus,  or  the  god  of  the  waters ; 
and  the  Canobian  and  the  Heraclean  mouths  of  the 
Nile,  are  synonymous  phrases.  When  Hercules  is 
represented  as  being  in  a  state  of  subjugation  to 
superior  powers ;  as  suffering  or  doomed  to  servitude ; 
as  dying  or  being  dead,  etc.,  the  meaning  is,  that,  re- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  177 

garded  as  the  sun,  he  suffered  a  periodical  imbecility 
and  partial  obscuration  in  the  winter  season  of  his 
reign ;  or,  considered  in  his  character  of  Canobus, 
that  in  the  hot  and  arid  division  of  the  year,  the 
waters  in  his  canals  and  ditches  were  dried  up  by  the 
burning  breath  of  the  Typhonian  Antaeus,  and  the 
devastating  sands  of  this  restless  and  determined  foe, 
encroached  upon  his  patriotic  works,  and  sadly  mar- 
red the  fair  features  of  his  domain.  In  the  declining 
state  of  his  solar  life  just  referred  to,  Hercules,  the 
sun- god,  is  Sandacus,  the  sun  exhausted  and  dissolv- 
ed in  his  connubial  devotion  to  Pharnace,  or  the 
moon,  his  celestial  consort :  *  this  interpretation  of 


*  The  Egyptians,  like  other  nations,  divided  time  into  cycles 
or  periods  of  a  greater  or  less  extent.  One  of  these  cycles  com- 
prised the  solar  year,  or  the  space  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
days,  and  was  personified  under  the  name  of  Som-Hercules,  the 
potent  wrestler  in  the  solar  orbit.  Hence  it  is  that  we  find  Her- 
cules, the*  valiant  son  of  the  resplendent  Ammon,  take  his  domi- 
nant station  in  Aries,  and  bravely,  no  less  than  wisely,  control  the 
varying  year  amid  many  and  severe  labors ;  for  the  celebrated 
twelve  labors  of  this  martial  god,  are  nothing  else  but  the  annual 
revolution  of  the  sun  in  the  path  of  the  ecliptic,  and  the  successive 
allegorical  conflict  in  each  zodiacal  stage  with  the  unpropitious 
cosmic  powers,  travestied  by  the  licentious  fancy  of  the  Greek 
poets.  The  solar  year  was  symbolized  by  the  golden  circle  of  king 
Osymandyas.  It  played  a  conspicuous  part  among  the  architectu- 
ral decorations  of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  divided  into  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  segments.  The  only  other  cycle  of  time 
I  shall  mention  here,  is  the  phcenix  cycle.  It  derives  its  appella- 
tive distinction  from  the  fabled  but  famous  bird  called  phcenix. 
This  hieroglyphical  bird  is  represented  as  perched  upon  the  hand 
of  Hercules.  A  star,  the  emblem  of  Sirius,  and  a  balance,  signifi- 
cant of  the  summer  solstice,  defined  and  illustrated  its  symbolical 
importance.     Its  head  is  ornamented  with  a  tuft  of  feathers  ;   its 


178  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  name  Sandacus,  contains  a  strong  inkling  of  po- 
etic extravagance,  and  could  hardly  have  been  con- 
sidered orthodox  among  a  people  whose  faith  is 
generally  defined  with  the  earnestness  of  prosaic 
sobriety. 

PARAGRAPH  HI. 

Typlion. 

One  of  the  symbols  of  Typhon  is  the  ass,  which, 
in  an  agrarian  point  of  view,  is  the  converse  of  the 
ox,  so  advantageously  employed  in  the  honorable 
pursuit  of  agriculture,  and  the  venerated  emblem  of 
Osiris.  Unable  or  unwilling  to  avail  himself  of  an- 
other  mode  of  progression,  he  sallies  forth  mounted 
upon  an  ass  when  he  seeks  to  waylay  Horus,  the 


wings,  according  to  Herodotus,  are  partly  of  a  gold,  and  partly  of 
a  ruby  color;  and  its  form  and  size  perfectly  correspond  to  the  con- 
tour and  dimensions  of  the  bird  of  heaven  —  the  eagle  :  it  is  also 
recognized  in  the  form  of  a  winged  genius  in  human  shape.  This 
emphatically  astronomical  bird,  at  the  expiration  of  the  great 
Sirius  year,  comprising  a  period  of  fourteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  years,  used  regularly  to  come  from  the  East,  we  are  told,  bear- 
ing the  ashes  of  its  defunct  sire,  and  depositing  them  in  the  tem- 
ple of  the  sun  at  Heliopolis  ;  that  is,  a  new  cycle  of  Si  rial  time 
commenced  or  succeeded  the  old  !  It  is  further  to  be  observed 
that  at  the  termination  of  the  fourteen  hundred  and  sixty-one 
years,  and  at  the  time  of  the  new  moon  during  the  summer  sol- 
stice, the  fixed  agrarian  and  the  vague  ecclesiastical  year  of  the 
Egyptians,  exactly  coincided.  This  event  filled  all  Egypt  with 
unbounded  joy,  and  attested  the  perfection  and  triumph  of  the 
astronomical  science  of  the  priests,  especially  the  most  erudite 
among  them  —  those  of  Heliopolis.  Owing  to  the  facts  before 
us,  the  phoenix  was  a  leading  type  of  the  resurrection  among  the 
ancients,  and  regarded  emphatically  as  the  bird  of  time. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  179 

Egyptian  Apollo,  whom  his  mother  Latona,  or  Isis, 
has  taken  the  precaution  to  secrete  in  the  isle  of  Buto. 
Owing  to  this  circumstance,  the  ass  is  sacrificed 
to  Horus,  the  inveterate  enemy  of  darkness  and  mis- 
rule. According  to  Plutarch,  the  crocodile  and  the  hip- 
popotamus are  likewise  symbols  of  the  lurid  and  mis- 
chievous god.  As  to  the  signification  of  the  term  Ty- 
phon,  it  appears  from  Jablonski's  "  Pantheon  of  Egypt," 
that  it  is  renins  malignus  ac  nocivns,  noxious  or  de- 
structive wind.*  Typhon  figures  also  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  Bebon,  Babys,  or  Baby,  which,  says  the 
same  author,  imports  the  latent  wind  in  subterranean 
caverns.  Smy,  too,  is  a  title  to  which  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  respond  :  it  denotes  tabid,  or  consumed. 
Besides,  his  Typhonian  majesty  is  distinguished  by 
the  cognomen  Seth,  which  is  synonymous  with  ass- 
colt.  Typhon  appears  armed  wTith  a  heavy  club  and 
a  long  knife,  and  thus  equipped  he  has  the  temerity 


*  One  genealogy  traces  the  descent  of  Typhon  to  Tartarus  and 
Terra;  decorates  the  upper  part  of  his  person  with  a  hundred 
leads  like  those  of  a  serpent  or  dragon ;  and  furnishes  him  with 
a  mouth  and  eves,  from  which  dart  flames  of  devouring  fire.  Hav- 
ing  stated  that  the  lurid  god  was  the  most  eminent  of  those  giants 
that  presumed  to  wage  war  against  heaven,  Tooke  thus  proceeds : 
"  Typhosus,  or  Typhon,  the  son  of  Juno,  had  no  father.  So  vast 
was  his  magnitude,  that  he  touched  the  east  with  one  hand  and 
the  west  witli  the  other,  and  the  heavens  with  the  crown  of  his 
head.  A  hundred  dragon's  heads  grew  from  his  shoulders ;  his 
body  was  covered  with  feathers,  scales,  rugged  hair,  and  adders  ; 
from  the  ends  of  his  finders  snakes  issued,  and  his  two  feet  had 
the  shape  and  fold  of  a  serpent's  body  ;  his  eyes  sparkled  with  fire, 
and  his  mouth  belched  out  flames.  He  was  at  last  overcome,  and 
thrown  down  —  from  heaven  ;  and  lest  he  should  rise  again,  the 
whole  island  of  Sicily  was  laid  upon  him." 


180  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

to  attempt  even  the  life  of  the  good  mother  Isis. 
Notwithstanding  the  great  and  manifold  evils  with 
which  this  ill-natured  and  mischief-plotting  deity- 
visited  mankind,  he  could  boast  of  his  Typhonias  or 
temples,  his  sacrifices,  and  his  worshippers.  In  a 
small  temple  at  Carnac,  he  condescends  to  appear 
under  a  variety  of  symbolical  attributes  ;  and  once  in 
the  grotesque  form  of  a  swine,  with  the  breasts  of  a 
woman,  while  the  inferior  parts  of  his  body  are  com- 
posed of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  a  man,  a  dog, 
and  a  lion. 

In  the  hypogeums  of  Thebes,  Nephthys,  the 
charming  spouse  of  his  satanic  excellency,  is  repre- 
sented with  prolonged  mamma),  and  both  she  and 
her  respectable  consort,  are  seen  embodied  in  the 
beautiful  artistic  idea,  compounded  of  the  figure  of 
a  swine,  the  paws  of  a  lion,  the  head  of  a  hippopota- 
mus, and  the  arms  of  a  man !  Typhon,  as  well  as 
Osiris,  must  die,  and  Horus  proves  himself  his  will- 
ing executioner.  Blood  cries  for  blood :  the  aveng- 
ing hand  is  raised ;  and,  armed  with  a  spear,  the  son 
of  Osiris  plunges  the  deadly  weapon  into  the  hippo- 
potamus-body of  the  malignant  god  :  he  dies.  Alas ! 
that  he  should  again  revive !  Thus  did  Horus  rec- 
ompense the  perfidious  author  of  so  many  insults 
and  wrongs,  as  basely  as  undeservedly  inflicted  upon 
himself,  his  family,  and  his  people.  Hercules  now 
appears  upon  the  stage,  and  the  interminable  war 
against  the  Proteus-like  Typhon  is  renewed.  The 
recent  victim  of  a  deeply  outraged  divinity,  fear- 
lessly arrays  himself  against  his  stalwart  opponent, 
under  the  name  and  in  the  character  of  his  old  foe 
Antaeus.     It  was  Satan  thus  metamorphosed,  whom 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  181 

Hercules,  in  defence  of  justice  and  the  common 
good,  was  obliged  to  gag  with  a  thong.  Antseus,  or 
Antaus,  like  his  worthy  prototypes,  reigns  east  and 
west  of  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  the  deserts  of  Ara- 
bia and  Lybia,  and  indeed,  wherever  scorching  heat, 
simoon-winds,  and  sand-showers  exert  their  baleful 
sway.  This  name  is  etymologically  deduced  from 
the  extensive  sand-plains  and  sand-dunes  which  con- 
stitute his  dismal  empire :  the  debris-production  of 
the  sea  and  the  desert.  One  of  his  strong-holds, 
the  principal  seat  of  his  pernicious  power,  and  the 
flagitious  work  of  his  own  hands,  was  situated  in 
the  Arabian  division  of  his  arid  and  arenose  domin- 
ions. It  bore  his  name,  and  the  recollection  of  it 
still  lives  in  the  records  of  archaeology.  A  memorial 
of  the  name  and  exploits  of  this  formidable  sand- 
god,  was  also  transmitted  to  posterity  in  the  foun- 
dation of  the  ancient  city  of  Antaeopolis,  the  locality 
of  which  was  defined  by  a  long  and  profound 
chasm  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Arabian  mountains. 

In  the  person  of  Busiris,  we  are  likewise  required 
to  acknowledge  a  Typhonian  evolution  or  transfor- 
mation ;  but  as  his  functions  and  qualities  are  sim- 
ilar to  the  life  and  attributes  of  the  rest  of  his 
inimical  race,  I  deem  it  unnecessary  to  pursue  a 
subject,  which  has  already  been  sufficiently  elu- 
cidated to  enable  the  reader  to  form  an  accurate 
idea  of  its  metaphorical  character  and  signification. 

16 


182  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   EGYPTIAN    THEORY    OF   THE    WORLD,  AND    TnE    WOR- 
SHIP   OF    SACRED    ANIMALS    OR    HIERO-ZOOLATRY. 

PARAGRAPH   I. 

Their  Theory  of  the   World. 

According  to  Proclus,  the  Egyptians  postulated 
three  orders  or  emanations  of  gods :  a  fact  which 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  still  attested  in 
the  extant  zodiacs  in  the  small  town  of  Tentyra  on 
the  Nile.  Directing  our  vision  towards  the  upper 
part  of  the  eupulo,  in  which  this  ancient  specimen 
of  the  astronomical  theology  of  the  Egyptians  is 
perpetuated,  we  discover  quite  at  the  top  the  twelve 
great  or  calendarian  gods,  symbolized  in  the  twelve 
signs  of  the  zodiac.  Each  of  these  twelve  gods  has 
his  three  satellites  called  Decani,  and  also  known  as 
the  demons  or  ethereal  gods  of  Hermes,  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  soul  or  intelligent  principle  of  the  uni- 
verse. Each  of  the  Decani,  likewise  has  two  adjuncts, 
and  thus  divinity  is  divided  and  subdivided  until  the- 
circumference  of  the  pneumatological  zodiac,  com- 
prising three  hundred  and  sixty  degrees,  extends  in 
twelve  homo-centric  pyramids  to  the  centre  of  the 
earth.  Every  one  of  these  zodiacal  pyramids  has 
its  presiding  demon,  just  as  the  twelve  great  mun- 
dane gods  are  governed  by  the  supreme  divinity, 
recognized  as  Amnion  or  Kneph.  These  deities  reg- 
ulate  the   seasons   and   the   cycles  of  time  of  our 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  183 

planetary  system ;  and  hence  the  ancient  division  of 
annual  time  into  hebdomads,  or  weeks  of  seven  days, 
and  years  of  twelve  months.  We  here  perceive  a 
vast,  theocosmic  system,  whose  apex  terminates  in 
unity,  and  which  proclaims  the  interesting  and  im- 
portant truth,  that  all  the  gods  are  essentially  but 
one  god,  as  all  the  suns  and  planets  are  but  one 
world. 

The  entire  heaven,  or  the  world  considered  as  su- 
pernal, is  marked  out  into  numerous  compartments 
and  distributed  among  the  celestial  rulers,  while  the 
uppermost  regions,  extending  downwards  from  the 
pyramidal  zenith  of  the  universe  to  the  moon,  apper- 
tain preeminently  to  the  gods,  according  to  their  sev- 
eral ranks  and  orders.  The  first  and  highest  among 
them  are  the  twelve  uper-auranioi,  or  supercelestial 
gods,  with  their  subordinate  demons.  After  these 
follow  the  egkosmioi,  or  intercosmic  gods,  of  whom 
each  also  presides  over  a  number  of  demons,  to 
whom  he  imparts  his  power,  and  who  rejoice  to  bear 
his  name.  Within  the  ample  limits  of  these  demons, 
gravitates  the  centre  of  all  things.  The  demons, 
receiving  their  power  and  influence  from  the  gods, 
whose  subalterns  they  are,  produce  the  plants  and 
animals,  infusing  into  them  their  own  energies,  thus 
replenishing  the  world,  and  uniting  into  one  stupen- 
dous whole  the  four  spheres  of  the  universe:  the 
supercelestial,  the  celestial,  and  the  super  and  sub- 
lunar spheres. 

There  are  six  orders  of  demons.  The  first  is  sui 
generis,  and  has  a  truly  divine  nature.  These  high- 
est demons  link  the  souls  in  the  bodies :  the  effluxes 
of  the  Father,  to  the  gods.     The  second  order,  still 


184  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

remarkable  for  high  intellectual  attributes,  has  the 
supervision  of  the  souls  as  they  enter  or  leave  the 
bodies :  they  make  creation  manifest.  The  third 
imparts  to  the  divine  souls  who  enter  into  bodies  for 
the  benefit  of  common  souls,  the  second  degree  of 
creative  power,  while  it  sheds  upon  them  the  higher 
influences.  The  fourth  bestows  upon  the  individual- 
ized natures,  or  distinct  forms  of  being,  the  active 
powers,  or  principles  of  synthetic  or  concrete  exist- 
ence ;  as,  life,  order,  ideas,  and  the  means  of  perfec- 
tibility which  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  gods.  The 
fifth  order  of  demons,  possessing  bodily  similitude  — 
somatceides,  hold  together,  sustain,  and  preserve  all 
the  elements  of  the  terrestrial  body,  after  the  sample 
of  the  eternal  body :  the  ideal  body  and  type  and 
source  of  all  bodies.  As  to  the  demons  of  the  sixth 
and  last  order,  they  are  charged  with  the  care  of 
ule,  or  matter,  and  it  is  their  business  to  superintend 
the  powers  which  descend  from  the  heavenly  ide 
into  the  terrestial  ule,  and  to  preserve  the  outlines  — 
skiagraphiai,  of  the  ideas  in  matter. 

As  the  upper  celestial  sphere  has  its  subdivisions 
of  beings,  so  has  the  lower ;  and  according  to  a  fixed 
law  of  pneumatology,  the  inferior  beings  always  act 
in  subserviency  to  the  superior.  The  sphere  of  the 
moon,  the  air,  the  fire,  and  the  water,  etc.,  are  all 
filled  with  demons,  who  are  of  an  elastic,  ethereal 
nature,  and  who  officiate  as  intermediate  agents  be- 
tween the  gods  and  mankind.  They  preside  over  the 
elements  and  organic  life.  Upon  them  depend  the 
growth,  the  inflorescence,  the  virtue,  and  the  perfec- 
tion of  plants  ;  and  hence  all  plants  which  bloom  in 
any  given  month  or  under  a  particular  zodiacal  sign, 


m   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  185 

are  decidedly  influenced  by  the  god  to  whom  such 
sign  or  month  is  sacred!  Behold  the  origin  of  sa- 
cred plants,  and  the  foundation  of  pharmacy ! 


PARAGRAPH  H. 

The  worship  of  Sacred  Atihnals,  or  Hiero-zoolatry. 

Ancient  Egypt  was  a  vast  menagerie  of  sacred 
animals,  whose  ample  roof  was  the  vault  of  heaven ; 
and  from  the  confines  of  Thebes  or  Disopolis  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Nile  at  Canobus,  the  whole  country 
teemed  with  hiero-animal  life.  As  every  depart- 
ment of  heaven  had  its  zodiacal  animal  and  its  zodi- 
acal habitation  adapted  to  it,  so  every  canton  had 
its  sacred  animal  and  its  temple,  in  which  it  received 
the  most  scrupulous  attention  of  its  votaries.  To 
some  extent,  at  least,  these  animals  symbolized  in 
their  instincts  and  habits,  the  phenomena  and 
changes  incident  to  the  solar  year,  and  they  might, 
therefore,  with  some  propriety  be  regarded  as  the 
natural  chronometers  of  the  different  periods  of  time. 
Thus  the  vernal  season  and  the  rutting  period  of  the 
ram  are  coincident;  the  increased  frequency  and 
loudness  of  the  sonorous  cries  of  the  lion,  mark 
the  hot  part  of  the  year ;  a  roving,  restless  manner 
distinguishes  the  conduct  of  the  goat  after  the  rainy 
season  has  set  in ;  and  the  vigilant,  spying  nature 
of  the  dog,  announcing  the  approach  of  man  or 
beast,  makes  him  a  fit  emblem  of  Sirius,  or  the  dog- 
star,  which,  as  soon  as  it  has  ascended  above  the 
horizon,  proclaims  the  approaching  flood  of  the  Nile. 
The  sacred  animals  were  not  always  the  same  in  the 

16* 


186  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

different  cantons  or  cities  of  Egypt  ;*  and  if  we  re- 
flect that  that  country  had  upwards  of  thirty  cantons, 
or  nomes,  beside  a  great  many  cities,  it  must  have 


*  In  his  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  the  late  Professor  Alexander 
informs  us  that  Egypt  was  divided  into  about  thirty-six  nomes  or 
counties ;  that  it  was  once  very  populous,  and  contained  about 
twenty  thousand  cities  ;  and  that  its  greatest  length,  from  north  to 
south,  was  six  hundred,  and  its  greatest  breadth,  from  east  to  west, 
three  hundred  miles.  According  to  this  statement,  founded 
upon  the  authority  of  Herodotus,  a  city  is  allowed  for  every  nine 
square  miles,  a  phenomenon  which,  with  all  proper  deference  for 
the  high  worth  and  honored  memory  of  the  Professor,  is  posi- 
tively incredible,  unless  we  ignore  all  ideas  by  which  the.  term  city 
is  usually  defined.  Speaking  of  the  populousness  of  ancient 
Egypt,  Diodorus  Siculus  says,  "  In  a  general  account  once  taken 
of  the  inhabitants,  they  amounted  to  seven  millions,  and  there  are 
no  less  than  three  millions  at  present.  Assuming,  however,  with 
Doctor  Parish  that  Egypt  at  one  period  contained  eight  millions 
of  inhabitants,  a  city  on  an  average  could  have  numbered  no  more 
than  four  hundred  persons !  In  what  light  Savary  viewed  this 
subject,  may  be  seen  from  the  following  observations :  "  Ancient 
Egypt  supplied  food  to  eight  millions  of  inhabitants,  and  to  Italy 
and  the  neighboring  provinces  likewise.  At  present  the  estimate 
is  not  one  half.  I  do  not  think,  with  Herodotus  and  Pliny,  that 
this  kingdom  contained  twenty  thousand  cities  in  the  time  of  Ara- 
asis :  but  the  astonishing  ruins  everywhere  to  be  found,  and  in 
uninhabited  places,  prove  they  must  have  been  thrice  as  numer- 
ous as  they  are."  A  brief  notice  of  the  population  of  modern 
Egypt,  as  it  has  been  defined  and  illustrated  by  Volney,  will  con- 
clude this  disquisition.  "It  is  impracticable,"  says  the  French 
traveller,  "  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  population  of  Egypt. 
Nevertheless,  as  it  is  known  that  the  number  of  towns  and  villages 
does  not  exceed  two  thousand  three  hundred,  and  the  number  of 
inhabitants  in  each  of  them,  one  with  another,  including  Cairo  it- 
self, is  not  more  than  a  thousand,  the  total  cannot  be  more  than 
two  millions  three  hundred  thousand." 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  187 

made  a  material  difference  in  the  expense  incident 
upon  the  support  of  the  symbolical  animals,  —  and 
these  alone  strictly  deserve  to  be  regarded  as  the 
sacred  animals  of  the  Egyptians,  whether  the  whole 
number  of  them  was  distributed  in  groups  over  the 
country,  each  part  providing  for  a  certain  portion  of 
them,  or  whether  all  of  them  had  to  be  supported  in 
every  place  in  which  such  animals  were  kept,  thus 
multiplying  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  to  an 
enormous  extent,  without  deriving  any  additional 
advantage  in  support  of  science  or  religion. 

At  Thebes,  the  sun-city  of  Amnion,  the  ram  was 
worshipped;  at  Chemmis,  or  Achmin,  Hermopolis, 
and  Mendes,  located  at  the  Mendesian  mouth  of  the 
Nile,  goats,  especially  males,  were  esteemed  sacred, 
and  dedicated  to  Pan  or  Jupiter.  The  city  Mendes 
derived  its  appellation  from  the  sacred  goat  which  it 
cherished  in  its  midst  as  the  repository  or  the  sym- 
bol of  divinity ;  an  appellation  which,  according  to 
Jablonski,  denotes  the  generative  power  of  nature, 
especially  of  the  sun,  while  in  the  opinion  of  Cham- 
pollion,  it  implies  an  island.  Mythology,  however, 
leaves  no  room  to  doubt  that  the  hieroglyphical  goat 
and  the  holy  city  of  Pan,  were  both  theocosmically 
distinguished  by  the  term  Mendes.  Again,  at  Cy- 
nopolis  the  dogs,  at  Lycopolis  the  wolves,  at  Bu- 
bastis  the  cats,  and  at  Tachompso  the  crocodiles,  in 
the  Coptic  called  Champsae,  were  served  with  relig- 
ious zeal  and  solemn  rites.  There  were,  however, 
sacred  animals  which  were  common  to  the  whole 
country ;  as  the  bull,  the  cow,  the  dog,  the  cat,  the 
ibis,  the  hawk,  and  the  scarabseus  —  the  symbol  of 
the  masculine  principle  of  fecundity,  and.  noticed  on 


188  THE   IIEATHEN   RELIGION 

a  former  occasion*  A  few  of  the  sacred  animals 
towered  far  above  the  rest  in  sanctity  and  hiero- 
glyphical  importance,  and  these  were  the  three  holy 
bulls  known  as  Mnevis,  Onuphis,  and  Apis.  The 
first  was  symbolically  adored  at  Heliopolis ;  was  of 
a  black  color ;  had  bristly  hair ;  and  symbolized  the 
sun  —  probably  in  its  inferior  orbit.  Onuphis  was 
likewise  black ;  had  shaggy,  recurved  hair ;  and  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  emblem  of  the  retroced- 
ing  sun.  As  the  representative  or  image  of  divinity, 
he  was  distinguished  by  the  appellations  of  good 
god,  good  spirit,  etc.  Apis  was  the  offspring  of  a 
cow,  asserted  and  believed  to  have  been  impregnated 
by  a  ray  of  light  from  heaven.  It  was  necessary 
that  he  should  be  of  a  black  color,  with  the  exception 
of  two  white  spots,  one  of  a  triangular  shape  upon 
the  forehead,  and  another  in  the  form  of  a  half-moon, 
upon  the  right  side,  etc.  As  soon  as  this  living  sym- 
bol of  Osiris  was  found,  he  was  conveyed  in  trium- 
phal procession  to  a  temporary  abode,  where,  during 
the  space  of  four  months,  he  was  attended  and  fed 
with  the  greatest  care,  in  a  building  the  east  side  of 
which  was  uninclosed.  At  the  expiration  of  this 
period,  a  festival  of  rejoicing  was  proclaimed,  which 
began  at  the  new  moon.  As  soon  as  the  solemni- 
ties were  concluded,  Apis  was  conducted  to  Heliop- 


*  Kreuzer,  on  the  authority  of  Porphyry  and  others,  says  of 
this  insect  that  its  impelletted  eggs  are  hatched  in  the  ground  after 
a  period  of  twenty-eight  days;  adding  that  it  was  therefore  an 
emblem  of  the  revolution  of  the  moon  round  its  axis ;  and  that  its 
alternate  semi-annual  existence  above  and  beneath  the  earth,  makes 
it  the  symbol  of  the  sun  in  the  northern  and  southern  tropic. 


IN    ITS    SYMBOLICAL    DEVELOPMENT.  189 

olis,  where  he  had  the  honor  to  have  every  attention 
shown  to  him  by  the  priests,  during  an  interval  of 
forty  days.  This  time  having  elapsed,  he  was  finally 
brought  to  Memphis,  and  duly  installed  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Phthah,  where  his  presence  was  recognized  in 
clouds  of  precious  incense  and  splendid  offerings. 
If  he  died,  or  the  time  arrived  when  he  had  to  make 
room  for  a  successor  —  which  happened  at  the  ter- 
mination of  the  Apis-period,  or  the  lunar  cycle  of 
twenty-five  civil  years,*  there  was  universal  mourning 
throughout  Egypt  until  another  Apis  was  found : 
the  dead  one  was  either  publicly  entombed  in  the 
temple  of  Serapis,  or  elsewhere  privately  interred. 
Apis  wTas  the  symbol  of  Osiris,  considered  as  the 
sun,  as  the  Nile,  and  as  the  principle  of  fructifica- 
tion ;  and  in  consequence  of  the  connection  of  Osiris 
thus  defined  with  Isis,  Apis  also  symbolized  this  god- 
dess, regarded  as  the  moon,  the  fertile  earth,  and  mate- 
rial nature. 

Some  light  is  shed  upon  the  origin  and  nature  of 
sacred  animals,  by  Eberhard  in  his  Geist  des  Urcliris- 
tentkums.  "  According  to  Mosheim,  on  the  intellec- 
tual system  of  Cud  worth,"  says  he,  "  the  sacred  ani- 
mals of  the  Egyptians  were  originally  Fetissos.  This 
phrase,  which  the  French  language  has  converted 
into  Fetiches,  is  Portuguese,  and  signifies  chosefee, 
a  divine  agent  that  communicates  oracles.  Upon 
their   arrival   on  the   western   coast   of   Africa,    the 


*  According  to  the  Egyptian  creed,  Osiris  appeared  in  the  flesh 
at  the  expiration  of  every  twenty-five  years  :  a  ray  of  heaven  or 
the  sun  impregnated  a  cow,  and  the  fruit  of  this  solar-overshadow- 
ing was  Apis. 


190  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Portuguese  found  that  some  of  the  natives  worship- 
ped trees,  stones,  animals,  etc.,  which  they  believ- 
ed animated  by  a  Maribou,  or  divinity.  A  fetich  is 
therefore  matter,  in  some  form  or  another,  in  which  a 
god  resides.  There  is  no  doubt  that  while  the 
Egyptians  still  continued  to  be  in  a  state  of  barbar- 
ism, they  worshipped  their  sacred  animals  as  fetiches. 
Even  after  they  had  assumed  an  agrarian  life,  the 
sun,  the  moon,  the  Nile,  etc.,  were  included  among 
their  national  fetiches  which,  under  the  similitude  of 
man  or  beast,  were  represented  as  Osiris,  Isis,  Horns, 
etc.  However,  all  these  images  were  hieroglyphics, 
by  which  they  expressed  their  complex  astronomical 
and  agrarian  calendar,  and  which,  being  displayed 
in  their  temples,  a  knowledge  of  it  was  readily  and 
universally  communicated." 

The  following,  taken  from  Doctor  Priestley's  Re- 
marks on  the  "  Origin  of  all  Religion,"  by  Dupis,  and 
Walz's  Erklarung  des  Kalenders,  etc.,  is  calculated  to 
throw  additional  light  upon  this  subject.  "  Since 
Capricorn,  or  the  wild  goat"  says  the  former,  "  natu- 
rally gets  into  the  most  elevated  situations,  browsing 
on  what  he  can  find  on  the  highest  mountains,  it  was 
thought  to  suit  the  place  in  the  heavens  from  which 
the  sun  begins  to  ascend  from  the  southern  to  the 
northern  tropic.  And  the  crab  being  an  animal  that 
goes  backwards,  it  was  thought  to  suit  that  tropic 
from  which  the  sun  begins  to  descend,  and  return  to 
his  former  place."  In  the  opinion  of  the  latter,  the 
zodiacal  signs  were  originated  when  the  Egyptians 
were  chiefly  devoted  to  a  nomadic  life,  and  he  thinks 
that  they  named  the  constellation  in  the  east,  which 
was  visible  above  the  horizon  just  before  the  sun 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  191 

arose  in  the  first  month  of  spring,  the  ram  or  lamb, 
because  at  that  season  the  most  lambs  were  yeaned, 
and  because  a  principal  source  of  their  wealth  con- 
sisted in  their  flocks.  For  similar  reasons,  he  thinks, 
they  conferred  the  appellation  of  taurus,  or  bull,  upon 
the  second  month.  Conceiving  the  lion  to  be  of  a 
hot  nature,  they  denominated  the  constellation  which 
seemed  to  be  the  harbinger  of  the  morning  sun,  dur- 
ing the  hottest  part  of  the  year,  the  lion.  The  scor- 
pion being  a  poisonous  insect,  its  name  was  given  to 
the  orient  constellation  which  marked  the  daily  re- 
appearance of  the  sun  during  the  period  of  the  year 
when  dangerous  diseases  prevailed.*  The  only  con- 
stellation which  remains  for  me  to  notice,  in  this 
place,  is  that  of  Pisces,  thus  distinguished,  according 
to  our  author,  because  during  the  month  in  which  it 
might  be  seen  in  the  eastern  horizon  before  sunrise, 
it  was  the  season  for  fishing. 

Though  the  Egyptians  entertained  a  peculiar  ven- 
eration for  the  animals  of  their  country,  and  were 
obliged  by  law  to  cherish  them,  yet  the  intelligent 
members  of  the  community  did  never  consider  any 
of  them  to  be  gods  in  an  absolute  sense,  nor  worship 
them  as  such ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  simply  re- 
garded and  treated  them  as  sacred,  in  respect  to  their 
hieroglyphical  character  and  uses,  or  if  in  the  opinion 
of  strangers  and  the  vulgar,  they  paid  divine  honors 
to  any  of  them,  that  opinion  is  to  be  discarded  as 
erroneous  and  absurd,  as  the  worship  was  not  in- 


*  The  sickly  season  in  Egypt  begins  much  earlier  than  the 
period  of  Scorpio,  yet  it  may  extend  its  ravages  into  autumn. 
—  G. 


192  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,  ETC. 

tended  for  the  sacred  beasts,  but  for  the  divinity  which 
animated  them,  or  of  whom  they  were  the  signifi- 
cant symbols.  "  In  the  presence  of  these  animals," 
says  Herodotus,  "  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities  perform 
their  vows.  They  address  themselves  as  supplicants 
to  the  divinity,  who  is  supposed  to  be  represented  by 
the  animal  in  whose  presence  they  are."  *  The 
Egyptians  sacrificed  many  of  their  sacred  animals 
and  feasted  upon  their  flesh  ;  would  they  have  done 
this  if  they  had  thought  them  to  be  gods  ?  The  idea 
is  monstrous!  That  the  common  people  —  ignorant 
as  they  undoubtedly  were  in  that  age  of  the  world  — 
may  have  been  bond  fide  believers  in  the  absolute 
divinity  of  cats  and  dogs,  and  worshipped  them  as 
such,  I  feel  no  hesitation  to  admit ;  but  that  such 
was  the  creed  and  the  practice  of  the  elite  of  the  na- 
tion, I  boldly  deny. 

*  Beloe. 


SECTION  II. 

THE  COSMOGONY  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  HINDOOS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    COSMOGONY    OF    THE    HINDOOS. 

According  to  M.  Poller's  Mythologie  des  Indous, 
the  following  account,  interspersed  with  comments 
and  quotations  by  Creuzer,  comprises  the  Hindoo 
history  of  the  creation  of  the  world :  "  In  the  pri- 
mordiate  state  of  the  creation,  the  rudimental  universe, 
submerged  in  water,  reposed  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Eternal.  Brahma,  the  architect  of  the  world,  poised 
on  a  lotus  leaf,  floated  upon  the  waters,  and  all  that 
he  was  able  to  discern  with  his  eight  eyes  (Brahma 
has  four  heads)  was  water  and  darkness.*     Amid 


*  According  to  the  cosmogonic  theory  of  the  Egyptians,  an  illim- 
itable darkness,  called  Athor,  or  mother-night,  and  regarded  as  the 
primeval  element  of  mundane  existence,  covered  the  abyss ;  while 
water  and  a  subtile  spirit  pneuma,  resided  through  divine  power, 
in  chaos.  A  holy  light  now  shone,  the  elements  condensed  or 
were  precipitated  beneath  the  sand  from  the  humid  parts  of  rudi- 

17  (193) 


194  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

scenes  so  ungenial  and  dismal,  the  god  sank  into  a 
profound  revery,  when  he  thus  soliloquized  :  '  Who 
am  I  ?  Whence  am  I  ? '  In  this  state  of  abstraction, 
Brahma  continued  during  the  period  of  a  century 
of  years  of  the  gods,  without  apparent  benefit  or 
a  solution  of  his  inquiries,  a  circumstance  which 
caused  him  great  uneasiness  of  mind.*  Suddenly 
he  heard  the  voice,  "  Direct  your  prayer  to  Bhaga- 
vant  —  the  Eternal,  known,  also,  as  Parabrahma. 
Brahma,  rising  from  his  natatory  position,  seats  him- 
self upon  the  lotus  in  an  attitude  of  contemplation, 
and  reflects  upon  the  Eternal,  who  now  appears  in 
the  form  of  a  man  with  a  thousand  heads :  Brahma 
still  prays.  This  evidence  of  his  piety  is  pleasing  to 
the  Eternal,  and  therefore  he  dispersed  the  primeval 
darkness,  and  opened  his  understanding."  In  his 
capacity  of  mover  of  the  ivaters,  Brahma  is  recognized 
under  the  name  of  Narajan,  and  as  such  he  is  still 
represented  in  an  image  of  blue  marble  in  the  great 
cistern  at  Catmandu. 

As  a  symbol  of  this  god,  the  water-lily  —  the  lotus 
of  the  Egyptians  —  continues  to  this  day  to  be  revered 


mcntary  creation,  and  nature,  thus  fecundated,  the  gods  dissemi- 
nated through  space,  etc. 

*  In  the  Institutes  of  Menu,  the  following  comparative  estimate 
is  given  of  the  years  of  the  gods :  "  A  month  of  mortals  is  a  day 
and  a  night  of  the  Pitri's,  or  patriarchs  inhabiting  the  moon.  A 
year  of  mortals  is  a  day  and  night  of  the  gods,  or  regents  of  the 
universe  round  the  north  pole.  Twelve  thousand  divine  years  is 
called  the  a^e  of  the  <rods,  and  a  thousand  such  years  is  a  day  of 
Brahma.  His  night  has  equal  duration."  —  Doctor  Priestley's 
"  Comparison  of  the  Institutions  of  Moses  with  those  of  the  Hin- 
doos and  other  ancient  nations,  etc." 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  195 

in  the  temples  of  the  Hindoos,  in  Thibet  and  Nepaul; 
and  a  Nepaulese  bowed  reverently  before  this  sacred 
plant  as  he  noticed  it  in  entering  the  study  of  Sir 
William  Jones.  It  appears  from  this  author's  work, 
Dissertations  Relating'  to  Asia,  that  even  before  they 
germinate,  the  seeds  of  the  lotus  contain  perfectly 
formed  leaves,  nature  thus  giving  us  a  specimen  of 
the  preformation  of  its  productions.  It  deserves  fur- 
ther to  be  remarked,  that  the  lotus  is  the  emblem  of 
the  generative  power  of  nature  through  the  media  of 
fire  and  water ;  and  that  it  accompanies  the  images 
of  all  the  Hindoo  gods,  who  personify  the  idea  of 
creation  or  generation.  Hence  it  is  said  in  the  Bha- 
gavat  Geeta,  according  to  Herder's  Vorwelt,  "  Eter- 
nal !  I  see  Brahma  the  creator  enthroned  in  thee 
above  the  lotus."  * 

The  darkness  being  dispersed  and  Brahma's  un- 
derstanding opened,  the  first  act  of  the  creation  of  the 
ideal  world  unrolled  itself,  and  the  future  creator  of  the 
visible  universe  beheld  in  the  archetypical  exhibitions 
of  the  Eternal,  buried  as  it  were  in  a  profound  sleep, 
all  the  infinite  forms  of  the  terrestrial  world.f  At 
this  crisis,  the  Eternal  uttered  the  behest,  "  Brahma, 
resume  your  contemplation,  and  as  soon  as  you  have 
attained   the    knowledge    of    my    omnipotence,    by 


*  This  was,  therefore,  a  poteniia,  non  actu,  existence  of  the  world, 
an  ideal  creation,  and  the  sum  of  preformations,  from  which  future 
being  was  to  be  produced  ;  an  idea  which  bears  a  strong  analogy 
to  that  which  Plato  has  advanced  in  his  Tim'aus. 

f  It  deserves  to  be  remarked  in  reference  to  the  lotus,  that  the 
seed  of  all  phcenogamous  plants  or  plants  of  a  higher  grade  bear- 
ing proper  flowers,  contain  an  embryo  plantlet  ready  formed.  —  G. 


.  .-- 


196  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

means  of  mortification  and  abstraction,  I  will  endow 
you  with  creative  power,  and  enable  you  to  develop 
the  world  from  the  life  which  is  hidden  in  my 
bosom."  Obedient  to  the  monition  of  Bhagavat, 
Brahma  again  becomes  absorbed  in  contemplation, 
and  resigns  himself  to  prayer  and  mortification  dur 
ing  the  period  of  a  century  of  years  of  the  gods- 
At  the  expiration  of  this  probationary  term,  Brahma 
received  the  promised  creative  power,  and  now  the 
second  act  of  the  creation  began.  Brahma  first  cre- 
ated infinite  space  ;  in  the  next  place,  he  exercised 
himself  upon  the  principles  of  things ;  after  that  he 
produced  the  seven  Surges  or  stellar  spheres,  illumi- 
nated by  the  resplendent  bodies  of  the  Dejotas  ;  and 
lastly,  he  ushered  the  earth  Mirtlok,  with  its  sun 
and  moon,  and  the  seven  Patals,  or  lower  regions, 
into  existence :  the  Surges  and  the  Patals  constitute 
the  fourteen  worlds  of  the  Hindoo  cosmogony. 

At  this  stage  of  the  world,  animated  beings  were 
formed,  and  among  them  spirits  enjoyed  a  priority 
of  existence.  The  first  in  the  order  of  time,  was 
Lomus  —  the  great  Muni,  who,  entirely  absorbed  in 
reflection  and  contemplation,  secluded  himself  in  the 
vicinity  of  Ajhudja  or  Audhe'e,  where  he  tarries  till 
the  end  of  days.*  When  the  creator  Brahma  per- 
ceived that  Lomus  was  of  no  use  to  the  world,  he 
made    the  nine  Rischis  —  inspired    beings,   among 


*  Audhee  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  East  Hindostan, 
and  celebrated  for  its  Ssorgadoari,  or  temple  of  heaven.  Accord- 
ing to  mythic  fame,  it  happened  on  one  occasion  that  the  re- 
nowned saint,  Shri  Rama,  bore  all  the  inhabitants  of  Audhee,  to- 
gether with  himself,  into  heaven  ! 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  197 

whom  was  included  Nardman,  and  illustrious  intel- 
ligence connected  with  the  three  persons  of  the  god- 
head; but  who,  notwithstanding  this  exalted  rela- 
tion, was  the  author  of  discord  and  rebellion,  —  a 
Titan,  similar  in  character  to  the  Ahriman  of  the 
Persians  or  the  Prometheus  of  the  Greeks.  Like  Lo- 
mus,the  Rischis  resigned  themselves  to  an  impassive, 
all  absorbing  contemplation. 

The  world  having  been  thus  far  completed,  in  or- 
der to  populate  it,  Brahma,  in  conjunction  with  his 
wife  Sarbutti,  brought  forth  a  hundred  sons,  of  whom 
the  oldest — Datch,  also  begat  an  equal  number;  but 
these  generations  consisted  only  either  of  Dejotas  — 
inhabitants  of  the  Surg's,  or  celestial  space,  or  of 
Daints  —  giants  :  the  denizens  of  the  Patals  —  the 
lower  spheres  or  regions,  and  who  could  therefore  not 
be  employed  to  people  Mirtlok,  or  the  earth.  Hence 
Brahma  put  forth  his  creative  energy  in  the  produc- 
tion of  mankind,  and  from  his  mouth,  he  engendered 
Brahman,  a  name  which  is  synonymous  with  the 
term  priest,  to  whom  he  gave  the  four  Vedas :  the 
four  words  or  books  of  his  four  mouths.  Brahman 
felt  very  lonely,  and  besides,  he  was  exceedingly 
afraid  of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forests;  wherefore 
the  creator  made  from  his  right  arm  Raettris  the 
warrior,  and  from  his  left  arm  his  wife  Shaterany. 
Unfortunately,  Raettris,  engaged  day  and  night  in 
the  production  of  his  brother  Brahman,  could  not 
find  time  to  provide  for  his  own  wants.  From  his 
right  thigh  Brahma  therefore  begat  the  third  son  Bais, 
destined  to  cultivate  the  soil,  and  to  prosecute  com- 
merce and  the  mechanic  arts,  while  from  his  left 
thigh  he  formed  his  wife  Basany.     The  labors  and 

17* 


198  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

cares  of  the  earth  being  still  too  multifarious  and 
severe  for  the  existing  progenitors  of  the  race,  Brah- 
ma proceeded,  in  the  last  place,  to  create  from  his 
right  foot  the  fourth  son  Suder,  intended  to  perform 
all  kinds  of  servile  labor,  and  from  his  left  foot  his 
wife  Suderany :  these  first  begotten  human  beings 
were  the  patriarchs  or  founders  of  the  four  Hindoo 
castes,  by  whom  the  earth  was  peopled,  and  who  re- 
ceived the  four  Vedas  as  the  law  of  human  life. 

Brahman  complaining  that  he  alone,  of  all  his 
brethren,  had  no  companion,  the  Eternal  bade  him 
not  to  divert  his  attention  with  such  thoughts,  but 
to  devote  himself  solely  to  the  study  of  the  Vedas, 
to  prayer,  and  the  observance  of  divine  worship. 
Nevertheless,  the  first-born  of  mankind  insisted  upon 
a  compliance  with  his  request  to  have  a  consort,  and 
therefore,  in  his  wrath,  the  Eternal  gave  Brahman  a 
Daintany,  a  daughter  of  the  race  of  the  Daints,  or 
giants,  of  whom  all  the  Bramins  are  maternally  de- 
rived ;  and  thus  the  entire  Hindoo  priesthood  is  de- 
scended, on  the  one  hand,  from  a  superior  spirit,  and 
on  the  other,  from  a  demonian  woman. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    THEOLOGY    OP    THE    HINDOOS. 

Notwithstanding  the  Hindoo  system  of  theology 
has  assumed  a  diversity  of  forms,  according  to  the 
degree  of  information  or  the  plastic  skill  of  authors,  a 
careful  investigation  of  the  subject,  and  a  proper  at- 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  199 

tention  to  the  difference  between  its  essential  import 
and  its  adventitious  coloring,  has  enabled  us  to  ar- 
rive at  the  following  facts,  which  it  is  presumed  may 
be  regarded  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the  prominent  and 
peculiar  features  by  which  it  is  ethnologically  dis- 
tinguished: There  is  one  only  Supreme  Being  who, 
being  considered  as  unrevealed,  is  denominated  Para- 
brahma,  Brehrri,  Paratma,  Ram,  or  Bhagavat.  Reveal- 
ing himself  as  Brahma,  Birma,  or  Brahma,  the  creator, 
he  produces  the  world  through  self-contemplation; 
manifesting  himself  as  Siva,  Mahadeva,  or  Madajo, 
he  destroys  it ;  and  appearing  under  the  name  and  in 
the  character  of  Vichnu,  he  reproduces  or  preserves 
it.  The  symbol  of  Brahma  is  the  earth  ;  of  Siva,  the 
fire ;  and  of  Vichnu,  the  water :  these  principal  per- 
sonifications of  Parabrahma,  are  the  three  great  De- 
jotas,  whose  mother  is  said  to  be  Bhavani,  and  of 
whose  origin  mythic  fame  gives  a  triple  account. 
"  Bhavani,"  thus  proceeds  the  most  commonly  re- 
ceived version  of  the  sacred  legend,  "  transported  with 
joy  at  the  thought  of  having  obtained  existence,  ex- 
pressed her  delight  in  skips  and  leaps,  and  while  thus 
blithely  engaged,  three  eggs  fell  from  her  bosom,  from 
which  issued  the  three  Dejotas :  the  Trimurti,  or  Hin- 
doo trinity."  The  most  holy  term  in  the  Hindoo 
liturgy,  denoting  the  divine  trinity  in  unity,  and 
which  no  pious  Hindoo  dares  to  pronounce,  both  on 
account  of  its  inherent  sanctity  and  the  profound 
reverence  which  he  entertains  for  it,  is  O'M ;  which  is 
at  once  a  contraction  and  a  phonetic  representation 
of  the  letters  A,  U,  M. 

It  is  by  this  thrice  sacred  monograph  that  the  three 
supreme  mundane  divinities,  or  highest  emanations 


200  THE  HEATHEN  KELIGION 

of  Parabrahma,  are  designated.  The  trinity  in  unity- 
being  Parabrahma,  the  self-existent,  and  the  undis- 
closed and  absolutely  Supreme  Divinity,  he  is  regard- 
ed as  too  exalted  for  the  intercourse  of  mortals,  and 
accordingly  he  has  neither  temples  nor  worshippers* 
Hence  representations  like  those  of  the  lingam,  the 
yoni,  f  etc.,  can  only  have  been  intended  to  symbol- 
ize his  distinct  energies  or  manifestations.  Para- 
brahma is,  therefore,  to  be  regarded  as  the  One  Eter- 
nal, who  is  unity  in  plurality,  or  one  in  all,  and  who, 
absolutely  considered,  has  neither  parts  nor  form, 
being  simply  an  intelligence  as  well  as  the  organ  and 
object  of  intelligence  ;  but  when  contemplated  in  his 
cosmical  displays  or  in  his  relations  to  the  actual 
world,  it  is  natural  to  recognize  him  according  to  his 
different  attributes  or  divine  acts,  and  equally  natural, 
as  it  is  evident  from  the  whole  ethnic  history  of  man- 
kind, to  represent  him  under  a  variety  of  expressive 
symbolical  devices.  He  is  emphatically  the  Eternal ; 
the  only  absolute  reality,  revealing  himself  in  joy  and 
bliss.  As  a  being  he  is  less  than  an  atom,  yet  more 
vast  than  the  universe.  In  his  essence,  he  is  incom- 
prehensible, ineffable,  and  unrepresentable.  The 
illimitable  universe  alone  can  define  his  name,  and 
portray  the  image  by  which  he  is  known.     While  he 


*  Upon  the  authority  of  Doctor  Ward,  I  stated  on  a  former 
occasion,  that  Brahma  —  the  personification  of  the  creative  attri- 
bute of  Parabrahma,  was  "  entirely  destitute  of  a  temple  or  -wor- 
shippers." It  appears,  however,  from  the  sequel  of  this  author, 
that  Brahma  claims  and  receives  a  part  of  the  ritual  homage  and 
festive  observances  common  among  the  Hindoos. 

f  The  male  and  female  symbols  of  creation. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  201 

is  independent  of  the  conditions  of  time  and  space, 
all  things  are  included  in  him  :  from  him  they  have 
proceeded,  in  him  they  centre.  Moreover,  he  is  im- 
perishable in  his  power  as  he  is  in  his  will ;  the  soul 
of  the  world  ;  the  soul  of  every  individual  being.  In 
short,  the  whole  creation  is  Parabrahma,  and  as  it 
has  emanated  from  him,  so  in  him  it  will  finally  be 
absorbed.  Finally,  Parabrahma  —  absolute  exist- 
ence, is  the  form  of  science  and  of  the  universe.  All 
worlds  are  one  with  the  Supreme  Being;  for  from 
his  will  they  have  originated :  this  divine  will  is  in- 
herent in  all  things,  and  it  reveals  itself  in  the  crea- 
tion, the  preservation,  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
world,  as  well  as  in  the  forms  and  mutations  of  time.* 
It  may  not  be  uninteresting,  and  it  certainly  can- 
not be  unimportant,  here  to  inquire,  what  was  the 
nature  of  the  Hindoo  theology  originally,  considered 
in  its  practical  relation,  when  it  had  attained  its 
second  stage  of  development,  or  after  synthetic  rea- 
soning had  resolved  polytheism  into  monotheism  ? 
and  what  is  its  present  character  according  to  the 
popular  creed  ?  Originally  —  using  this  term  in  its 
present  acceptation,  it  was  doubtless  a  plain,  concise 
system,  as  truthful  as  it  was  generally  comprehensi- 
ble. Its  professors  were  not  vexed  or  distracted  with 
subtile,  metaphysical  definitions.  The  three  promi- 
nent ideas  of  the  Deity,  as  they  unfold  themselves  in 
the  creation,  the  preservation,  and  the  decay  or  de- 
struction of  the  world,  were  predicates   which  the 


*  Gorres  Mythengeschichte  ;  Jones'  Asiatic  Researches,  and 
Dissertations  Relating  to  Asia ;  Moore's  Hindoo  Pantheon ;  Payne 
•Knight,  on  Symbolical  Language,  etc. 


202  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

course  of  nature,  and  the  wonders  of  the  universe 
everywhere  loudly  proclaimed,  and  metaphysic  was  as 
little  needed  to  appreciate  such  truths,  as  it  was  to 
understand  the  elementary  ideas  of  the  religion  which 
the  lawgiver  Moses  was  commissioned  to  promul- 
gate to  the  Hebrews.  The  innocent  attempt,  how- 
ever, to  symbolize,  or  clothe  in  the  veil  of  allegory, 
the  attributes  and  functions  of  the  Deity,  and  thus  to 
render  the  Godhead  cognizable  within  the  lowest 
sphere  of  vulgar  vision,  gradually  led  to  the  vitiation 
of  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  Hindoos.  By  sum- 
moning hieroglyphics  to  the  aid  of  practical  religion, 
the  Hindoo  priesthood  aimed  originally  merely  to 
awaken  and  perpetuate  a  remembrance  of  the  Deity 
among  mankind ;  but  this  laudable  design  was  ulti- 
mately overlooked  or  disregarded,  and  instead  of 
God,  whom  it  was  simply  intended  to  typify  or  call 
to  mind,  the  image  or  mnemonic  symbol  itself  was 
adored  as  a  divinity  :  fetichism  once  more  resuming 
the  place  of  monotheism  in  the  devotion  of  the  ple- 
beian multitude. 

Viewed  in  connection  with  the  foregoing  observa- 
tions, the  force  and  relevancy  of  the  following  com- 
munication of  the  bramin  Rammohun  Roy,  must  be 
deemed  decisive  in  an  inquiry  like  the  present.  Ac- 
cording to  the  "  Monthly  Magazine  "  for  June,  eigh- 
teen hundred  and  seventeen,  republished  in  the  same 
year  at  Jena,  in  the  German  language,  the  Hindoo 
priest  thus  expresses  himself  upon  this  interesting 
subject :  "  I  have  noticed  that  in  their  writings,  many 
Europeans  endeavor  to  palliate,  or  deny  the  existence 
of  idolatry  among  the  Hindoos,  striving  to  convince 
themselves  that  all  the  visible  objects  of  divine  wor- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  203 

ship  among  us  are  regarded  by  their  votaries  merely 
as  symbolical  representations  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
Were  this  the  case,  I  should  not  deem  it  my  duty  to 
enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  question.  The  truth, 
however,  is,  the  present  Hindoos  do  not  thus  view  the 
subject,  but  firmly  believe  in  an  infinite  number  of 
gods  and  goddesses,  who  they  suppose  enjoy  unlim- 
ited power  in  their  respective  sphere  or  empire.  To 
propitiate  them,  and  not  the  true  God,  temples  are 
erected,  and  divine  worship  is  observed.  It  cannot, 
however,  be  doubted,  and  it  is  my  intention  to  show, 
that  this  practice  has  originated  in  the  symbolical 
representations  of  the  attributes  and  functions  of  the 
true  God :  a  truth  which  is  now  no  longer  remem- 
bered, and  to  broach  which  is  denounced  by  many 
as  a  heresy." 

Upon  the  whole,  the  following  quotation  from  "  A 
View  of  the  Idolatry  of  the  Hindoos,"  by  Doctor 
Ward,  fully  coincides  with  the  views  laid  down  in  the 
preceding  inquiries  :  "  The  Hindoos,"  says  he,  —  he 
means  of  course  the  better  informed  among  them,  — 
"  have  some  very  enlarged  views  of  the  divine  influ- 
ence ;  they  believe  that  it  diffuses  its  vivifying  energies 
over  the  entire  universe;  instilling  its  lifegiving  powers 
into  every  portion  of  animated  matter.  It  is  related 
of  a  learned  bramhun  —  bramin,  that  on  hearing  the 
following  lines  from  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  he  started 
from  his  seat,  begged  for  a  copy  of  them,  and  de- 
clared that  the  author  must  have  been  a  Hindoo. 
The  lines  referred  to  are  these  :  — 

"  All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole ; 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul ; 


204  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees ; 
Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent." 

This  may  serve  to  show  the  opinions  which  the 
Hindoos  entertain  of  the  universal  energy  and  opera- 
tion of  the  Deity.  This  energy  is  said  to  have  created 
the  universe  ;  and  therefore  this  is  the  object  of  wor- 
ship. From  the  notion  of  God  being  the  soul  of  the 
world ;  and  the  world  itself  being  God,  under  various 
forms,  has  arisen  the  Hindoo  practice  of  paying 
divine  adorations  to  the  heavens  collectively ;  —  to 
the  sun,  moon,  the  stars,  the  sea,  great  rivers,  and  all 
extraordinary  appearances  in  nature.  Even  the  divine 
energy  itself  has  been  personified,  as  a  sort  of  holy 
spirit,  and  worshipped  under  different  names."  * 

The  disclosure  which  the  intelligent  bramin  made 
above  upon  the  present  condition  of  the  Hindoo  re- 
ligion, holds  equally  good  in  its  application  to  the 
popular  forms  of  devotion  as  they  manifested  them- 
selves among  the  ancient  Egyptians  in  the  time  of 


*  It  is  deemed  proper  here  to  reiterate  the  fact  that  all  the  ob- 
jects of  nature  referred  to  in  the  text,  as  well  as  innumerable 
others,- were  fetiches  in  the  primitive  ages  of  the  world,  and  con- 
stituted universally  the  first  divinities  of  mankind ;  and  that  after 
the  priests  had  arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  One  God,  they  made 
use  of  some  of  them  as  his  symbols,  or  the  indices  of  his«attri- 
butes  and  functions,  while  the  great  mass  of  the  human  race  either 
still  continued  to  maintain  its  ancient  relation  towards  them,  or 
in  case  it  did  ever  share  the  more  exalted  religious  conceptions  of 
the  sacerdotal  order,  it  relapsed  again  into  its  former  fetichism  and 
idolatry.  These  remarks,  therefore,  apply  with  equal  force  to 
the  Egyptian  theology,  a  notice  of  which  will  close  the  present 
chapter.  —  G. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  205 

Herodotus.  In  order  to  obtain  an  eligible  position 
from  which  we  shall  be  able  to  survey,  in  an  ample 
field  of  vision,  the  remains  of  a  primitive  fetichism 
or  the  later  iconolatrous  religious  creed  of  two  of  the 
most  renowned  nations  of  antiquity,  as  it  flourished 
at  one  period  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  or  is  still 
practised  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges, 
a  synopsis  of  the  Egyptian  system  of  faith  is  here 
introduced  from  the  Pantheon  JEgyptiorum  of  Jablon- 
ski,  in  the  style  and  with  the  comments  of  Doctor 
Priestley.  "  According  to  Jablonski,"  writes  this  in- 
defatigable divine,  "the  knowledge  and  worship  of 
the  Supreme  Being  was  long  retained  by  the  Egyp- 
tians,* and  they  did  not  think,  with  the  Stoics  and 
others,  that  he  was  bound  by  any  blind  fate,  inde- 
pendent of  his  own  will.  This  supreme  intelligence 
was  denominated  Neitha.  The  same,  or  his  princi- 
pal attribute,  was  also  designated  by  the  terms  Phthas, 
and  Kneph  — -  Cnuphis,  and  in  their  hieroglyphics  he 
was  represented  by  a  serpent.  They  had  also  an 
idea  of  a  chaos  of  inert  matter,  out  of  which  the  Su- 
preme Being  formed  all  things.  The  origin  of  all 
things  was  also  denominated  Athor,  called  by  the 
Greeks  the  celestial  Venus.  It  seems  to  have  been 
all  nature,  or  the  powers  of  nature,  personified. 

In  a  course  of  time,  however,  the  worship   of  the 
Supreme  Being  was  neglected  in  Egypt,  as  well  as  in 


*  That  is,  after  metaphysical  induction  had  at  last  succeeded 
in  proclaiming  to  the  human  mind  the  existence  and  providence 
of  the  Supreme  Being  —  the  God  of  gods;  and  not  subsequently 
to  a  primitive,  supernatural  revelation,  as  our  authors  presume  to 
take  for  granted.  —  G. 

18 


206  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

other  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  regards  of  the  peo- 
ple were  confined  to  "visible  objects,  especially  the 
heavenly  bodies,  as  having  the  most  sensible  influ- 
ence on   the  earth,  and  on  which  their  well-being 
more  immediately  depended;  and  they  worshipped 
the  sun  and  moon  under  their  proper  names ;  that 
of  the  former  Phre,  and  that  of  the  latter  Io.     They 
also  paid   some  worship   to  the  stars,    and  the  five 
planets.     These,  ^together  with  the  sun  and  moon, 
were  the  seven  great  gods  of  Egypt,  and  when  they 
are  called  eight,  the  Supreme  Being  was  included 
with  them.      These  were   the    Cabari,   etc.   of   the 
Greeks.     It  is  probable  that  the  erection  of  obelisks 
and  pyramids,  with  which   Egypt    abounded,   had 
some  relation  to  the  worship  of  the  sun,  as  also  had 
the   sacred  name  consisting  of  three  letters.     These 
Jablonski  supposes  to  have  been  phre  above  men- 
tioned.    But  as  the  celebrated  triliteral  name  among 
the  Hindoos  is  own*  and  on  was  also  at  one  time 
the  name  or  title  of  the  sun  in  Egypt;  whence  we 
read  of  the  priest  of  On,  and  a  city  of  that  name, 
called  by  the    Greeks   Heliopolis,  sacred  to   him,  I 
rather  think    that    this  was  the   mystical  word  in 
Egypt  as  well  as  in  Hindostan.     In  time,  however, 
the  worship  of  the  stars  and  planets  became  confined 
to  the  priests,  who  applied  the  knowledge  they  had 
of  them  to  the  purpose  of  calculating  nativities,  and 
other  modes  of  divination. 

The  next  change  that  the  religion  of  Egypt  under- 
went  was    in  consequence  of  the    speculations  of 


*  This  -word,  as  we  have  seen  above,  is  also  written  aum,  and 
contracted  phonetically  into  o'm.  —  G. 


IN    ITS    SYMBOLICAL    DEVELOPMENT.  207 

the  priests,  and  men  of  learning,  concerning  the 
various  positions  of  the  sun  and  moon  with  respect 
to  the  earth,  and  the  other  properties  and  powers  of 
these  great  luminaries,  and  their  giving  them  differ- 
ent names,  expressive  of  these  relations  and  proper- 
ties. After  this,  the  worship  of*  the  sun  and  moon, 
by  their  proper  names,  gradually  ceased,  other  terms 
being  introduced,  and  peculiar  rites  appropriated  to 
each ;  so  that  in  time  they  came  to  be  considered  as 
so  many  different  deities ;  and  it  is  now  with  diffi- 
culty that  they  can  be  traced  to  their  origin.  This 
worship  of  the  sun  and  moon  under  symbolical  names, 
Jablonski  thinks  was  accomplished  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury after  the  Exodus,  in  consequence  of  a  reforma- 
tion that  was  made  in  the  Egyptian  calendar,  which 
the  priests  were  enabled  to  do  by  the  attention  they 
had  given  to  the  science  of  astronomy.  About  that 
time,  in  other  countries  as  well  as  in  Egypt,  the  sun 
was  seldom  worshipped  under  any  other  names  than 
such  as  Osiris,  Baal,  Moloch,  Chemosh,  etc.,  but  the 
term  Osiris  he  supposes  to  have  been  known  in  Egypt 
some  time  before  the  arrival  of  the  Israelites  in  the 
country.  Under  this  name  the  sun  was  considered 
as  the  regulator  of  time  ;  and  as  king  of  the  heavens, 
he  was  called  Ramphath.  In  the  winter  solstice  he 
was  Serapis,  worshipped  under  that  name  at  Sino- 
pium  near  Memphis,  and  at  Racotis  near  Alexandria. 
As  beginning  to  emerge  from  this  low  state  he  was 
Harpocrates  ;  when  arrived  at  the  vernal  equinox  he 
was  Amun,  and  under  that  name  was  worshipped  at 
Thebes.  In  the  summer  solstice  he  was  Horus, 
and  considered  as  in  his  full  strength  he  was  Semo, 
and  Hercules. 


208  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

About  the  same  time  that  the  sun  was  worshipped 
under  the  name  of  Osiris,  the  moon  obtained  that  of 
Isis ;  and  in  time  was  worshipped  in  preference  to 
any  other  deity,  because  the  moon  was  thought  to 
have  more  influence  on  the  earth  than  any  other  of 
the  heavenly  bodies.  She  was  thought  more  benefi- 
cent than  the  sun,  whose  excessive  heat  often  dried 
and  burned  up  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  Sometimes, 
however,  by  the  term  Isis  was  understood  the  fruit- 
ful part  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  as  being  made  so  by 
the  influence  of  the  moon ;  and  sometimes  it  was 
synonymous  to  the  earth  in  general.  But  the  moon, 
as  well  as  the  sun,  was  worshipped  under  more 
names  than  one.  The  new  moon  was  the  goddess 
BubastiS)  and  the  full  moon  Bull.  Considered  as 
continually  changing,  and  often  punishing  the  crimes 
of  men,  she  was  Tithrambo,  corresponding  to  the 
Hecate  of  the  Greeks.  She  was  also  ll/jthia,  or  Lu- 
cim,  particularly  invoked  in  childbearing.  Sothis, 
or  the  dog-star,  was  peculiarly  sacred  to  Isis,  as  other 
stars  and  planets  were  sacred  to  other  deities  who 
were  supposed  to  direct  their  influences.  The  heliacle 
rising  of  this  star  being  when  the  sun  was  in  Cancer, 
and  the  rising  of  the  Nile  being  then  first  perceptible, 
this  great  event  was  chiefly  ascribed  to  the  moon. 
This  was  in  the  month  called  TJioth,  the  first  in  the 
Egyptian  year,  and  thought  to  be  the  birthday  of 
the  world.*     The  worship  of  the  Egyptians  was  not 


*  The  heliacle  rising  of  Sothis,  or  the  dog-star,  at  the  summer 
solstice  defined,  first,  the  solar  year  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  davs:  and  secondly,  the  great  division  of  time  including  four- 
teen  hundred  and  sixty-one  years  —  as  has  already  been  men- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  209 

confined  to  the  celestial  bodies.  The  river  Nile  was 
an  object  of  worship  to  them  at  a  very  early  period, 
being  considered  as  the  father  and  the  saviour  of  the 
country.  Temples  were  erected  to  this  river,  and 
priests  appointed  to  serve  in  them,  especially  at  Ni- 
lopolis ;  but  in  every  considerable  city  there  were 
priests  of  the  Nile,  and  among  other  offices  it  was 
their  business  to  bury  in  sacred  monuments  all  per- 
sons who  were  killed  bv  crocodiles,  or  drowned  in 
the  river,  thinking  there  was  something  divine  in 
them.  The  Nile  was  sometimes  called  the  earthly 
Osiris,  and  the  Bull  Apis  was  considered  as  his  sym- 
bol, or  of  the  fertility  which  Egypt  derived  from 
it.  Before  this  river  entered  Egypt  it  was  called 
Siris,  which  Mr.  Bruce  says  signifies  u.  dog  in  those 
countries,  and  thence  the  name  Sirius,  or  the  dog- 
star. 

Besides  the  worship  of  benevolent  deities,  the 
Egyptians,  like  all  other  heathen  nations,  paid  divine 
honors  to  a  malevolent  one,  commonly  called  Ty- 
phon;  he  being  considered  as  the  author  of  almost 
all  evil,  and  they  worshipped  him  with  a  view  of 
averting  the  evils  which  they  thought  it  was  in  his 
power  to  inflict  upon  them.  To  him  they  once  sac- 
rificed men  with  red  hair,  he  being,  they  said,  of 
that  color:  on  which  account  they  held  it  in  great 
abhorence,  but  afterwards  red   oxen.      When   they 


tioned,  called  the  sotliis-period  or  cycle,  and  which  was  the  basis 
or  norma  of  the  sacerdotal  system  of  chronology.  When  it  is  said 
in  the  text  that  the  Egyptian  year  commenced  in  the  month  Thoth, 
reference  is  had  to  the  civil  year.  —  G. 

18* 


210  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,  ETC. 

did  not  gain  their  object  by  this  means,  they  took 
some  of  the  animals  that  were  sacred  to  him  into 
a  dark  place,  where  they  terrified  and .  beat  them ; 
and  if  that  did  not  answer,  they  killed  them  out- 
right." 


SECTION  III. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  CREED  OF  THE  SCANDINAVIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    SCANDINAVIAN    DEITIES. 

Prologue. 

Whether  Odin  or  Thor,  the  former  of  whom  re- 
sponding also  to  the  names  of  Woden  and  Wodan, 
is  entitled  to  preeminence  of  rank  in  the  Scandina- 
vian pantheon,  is  a  question  which  has  not  hereto- 
fore been  clearly  determined.  While  the  opponents 
of  Thor  concede  to  his  friends  that  it  is  common  to 
find  in  the  popular  creed  of  the  mythologies  of  an- 
tiquity, that  the  god  of  thunder  —  as  Thor  or  Jupiter, 
is  represented  as  the  chief  of  the  celestial  powers,  and 
that  he  may  therefore,  as  it  is  contended  by  his  advo- 
cates, have  been  the  supreme  god  of  the  Teutonic 
race,  during  its  residence  in  Asia,  they  insist  that  it 
is  a  -well-ascertained  fact  that  in  the  more  recent  or 
historical  times,,  all  the  tribes  of  these  people  re- 
garded Odin  as  the  father  of  the  gods ;  and  that  in 

(211) 


212  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  Eddaic  Poems,  he  is  invariably  portrayed  in  this 
exalted  capacity.  Let  us  therefore  proceed  briefly 
to  investigate  the  claims  of  the  respective  parties. 
Adam  of  Bremen  mentions  the  statues  of  the  divine 
triad,  Odin,  Thor,  and  Frey,  placed  one  above  the 
other  in  the  temple  of  Upsal,  in  the  same  order  in 
which  their  prototypes  are  here  enumerated.  This 
priority  of  position  evidently  implies  a  superiority  of 
Odin  over  Thor.  According  to  another  version  of 
the  same  subject,  the  images  of  the  Teutonic  trinity 
were  placed  in  such  a  relation  to  each  other,  that 
Thor  occupied  the  middle,  Odin  the  right,  and  Frey 
the  left  side  of  him ;  a  grouping  which  seems  to 
attach  the  most  weight  to  Thor. 

The  most  solemn  judicial  oath  among  the  Scandi- 
navians, administered  within  the  sacred  oZfor-ring^was 
taken  in  the  name  of  Frey,  Njord,  and  the  Almighty 
God.  By  the  latter  designation,  the  Icelanders  and 
the  Norwegians  understood  Thor,  the  Swedes  and 
the  Danes,  Odin.  Here,  again,  is  a  parity  of  pat- 
ronage and  an  equality  of  rank.  I  will  only  add  that 
the  titles  which  appropriately  distinguished  the  per- 
sons in  the  trinity,  were  the  High,  the  equally  High, 
and  the  Third.  Odin  is,  however,  called  the  Alfadir 
—  the  father  of  ah1,  or  the  Supreme  God  in  the  strict 
metaphysical  acceptation  of  the  term,  as  it  is  affirmed 
by  some ;  while  others,  and  among  these  the  distin- 
guished Norse  scholar,  Finn  Magnusen,  maintain  that 
this  comprehensive  epithet  is  only  popularly,  and  as  it 
were  by  a  hyperbolical  concession,  applied  to  Odin, 
whom  they  consider  as  a  principal  mundane  divinity, 
but  altogether  different  from  the  absolutely  supreme 
and  supermundane  deity.    From  the  cosmogony  of  the 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  213 

Scandinavians,  it  is  evident  that  Odin  is  a  creature, 
and  not  even  the  first  in  the  scale  of  sentient,  organic 
existence.  Genealogy  traces  his  descent  to  Bor  and 
Besla,  and  he  is  therefore  the  mixed  offspring  of  an 
illustrious  sire  and  a  corrupt  mother.  A  truth,  which 
must  forever  annihilate  Odin's  pretensions  to  the 
rank  of  an  absolutely  supreme  godhead.  Prior  to  his 
existence,  there  was  a  God  in  statu  abscondito,  who 
sent  the  warm  air  into  the  chaotic  abyss  called  Gin- 
nunga-gap,  and  this  incident  was  the  first  display  of 
a  plastic  energy  in  creation.  According  to  Mone, 
every  thing  in  Ginnunga-gap,  —  the  foetal  vase  of 
the  world,  the  gods,  and  the  giants,  and  whatever 
proceeds  from  them,  is  subject  to  the  change  and  dis- 
solution consequent  upon  the  existing  dualism  in  the 
universe.  Only  the  being-  who  dwells  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  world,  and  who  impelled  the  dissolving 
heat  from  Muspellheim  into  Ginnunga-gap,  is  with- 
out mutation  and  eternal.  The  gods  who  descended 
on  the  maternal  side,  from  giants,  are  in  a  state  of 
perpetual  warfare  with  this  branch  of  their  kindred  ; 
that  is,  mind  and  matter  are  involved  in  a  ceaseless 
conflict ;  and  the  mortality  of  the  gods  is  necessarily 
predicated  upon  their  organic  connection  with  ma- 
terial existence.  This  death  or  mortality  is,  however, 
not  an  extinction  but  an  evolution  of  being,  and  a 
repetition  of  it  is  gain,  —  the  plus  in  the  problem  of 
being. 

In  his  "  Critical  Examination  of  the  Leading 
Doctrines  of  the  Scandinavian  System,"  Blackwell 
thus  concludes  his  remarks  upon  this  subject :  "  We 
should  be  inclined  to  conjecture  that  the  Scandina- 
vian cosmogonists  may  have  regarded  Odin  as  a  real 

s 


214  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

mundane  deity.  The  problem  which  they  had  to 
solve,  was  the  origin  of  the  universe.  They  might 
have  had  recourse  to  the  more  pleasing,  and  at  the 
same  time  far  more  rational  system  that  presupposes 
a  Supreme  Essence  —  a  spirit  moving  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters  —  whereas  the  one  they  adopted  only 
recognizes  matter  which  becomes  at  length  sufficient- 
ly organized  to  produce  Odin,  Vili,  and  Ve.*  They 
may  possibly  have  applied  these  names  to  designate 
three  modes  of  action  of  one  deity,  —  Odin,  or  All- 
Father;  but  whether  they  regarded  him  as  a  corporeal 
being,  or  as  the  aninia  mundi — the  intelligent  and 
co-ordinate  principle  of  the  universe  —  we  think  they 
ascribed  to  this  being  or  this  intelligence,  the  further 
work  of  creation  typified  by  the  slaughter  of  Ymir, 
and  the  formation  of  the  earth  and  the  heavens  from 
his  body,  as  it  lay  extended  in  Ginnunga-gap."  f 

After  a  fair  investigation  of  the  subject  under  con- 
sideration, it  must  be  admitted  that  Odin  is  undoubt- 
edly the  chief  mundane  god  among  the  Scandinavians, 
and  that  in  war  especially,  he  towered  far  above  the 
rest  of  his  compeers :  he  was  emphatically  the  M ars 
among  the  sons  of  Teut.  X     It  cannot  be  denied  also, 


*  Was  not  the  thaw-wind  blowing  from  Muspellheim*  at  the 
bidding  of  the  unseen  God,  an  animus,  a  breath,  a  spirit  brooding 
over  the  waters  of  Ginnunga-gap  ?  As  will  be  seen  hereafter,  no 
fact  in  Scandinavian  cosmogony  is  more  clearly  established  than 
this.  —  G. 

f  Not  to  Odin  alone  but  to  him  and  his  two  brothers  Yili  and 
Ve,  is  the  creation  of  the  world  ascribed,  as  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  show  in  our  chapter  on  Scandinavian  cosmogony.  —  G. 

%  Teut,  or  Tuisco,  is  the  hypothetical  founder  of  the  Teutonic 
race,  or  one  of  their  oldest  gods,  whose  name  distinguished  his 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  215 

that  the  traditions,  the  life,  and  the  religion  of  the 
Scandinavians,  as  well  as  of  the  Germanic  branch  of 
the  Teutonic  race,  mainly  centres  in  Odin.  And 
Odinism  and  Scandinavinism  are,  in  many  respects, 
synonymous  terms. 

The  Scandinavan  mythology,  like  the  people  whose 
name  it  bears,  has  its  sturdy  root  in  the  plains  of 
upper  Asia.  It  was  from  this  region  that  a  part  of 
the  Teutonic  people,  under  the  leadership  of  Odin 
the  hero,  immigrated  into  Europe  in  the  age  preced- 
ing the  birth  of  Christ.  And  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  it  is  a  vigorous  branch  of  the  prolific  Hindoo- 
Persian  stem.     The  deities  who  figure  in  its  ample 


votaries.  Among;  the  five  or  six  Teutonic  deities  who  have  con- 
ferred  their  names  upon  the  days  of  the  week,  Teut,  or  Tuisco, 
claims  to  be  one,  and  to  him,  according  to  Walz,  Tnesday  —  in 
German  Dienstag,  is  sacred.  "  Dienstag,"  says  he,  "  which  in  the 
old  German  was  written  Dingstag,  derives  its  name  from  Tuisco, 
whom  the  ancient  Germans  worshipped  as  the  god  of  Justice. 
From  Tuiscotag,  were  formed  Tuistag  and  Tisfag."  At  last  Din- 
stag,  or  Dingstag,  gave  nominal  distinction  to  this  day.  The  root 
of  this  term  in  the  old  Norse,  as  we  learn  from  M.  Mallet,  is  tliinga, 
which  in  process  of  time  was  changed  into  thing :  it  was  used  as 
an  appellative  denoting  a  deliberative  or  judicial  assembly,  com- 
posed of  all  the  free  citizens  of  the  nation,  and  called  Al-ihing. 
The  Al-thino-  was  held  annually  in  summer,  and  lasted  sixteen 
days.  Gur  French  authority  upon  this  subject,  already  noticed, 
ignoring  Tuisco,  derives  not  only  the  English,  but  every  other 
Teutonic  appellation  by  which  this  day  is  distinguished,  from  Tyr, 
a  warrior  deity,  and  the  protector  of  champions  and  brave  men. 
"  From  Tyr,"  says  he,  in  the  language  of  his  translator,  Bishop 
Percy,  "  is  derived  the  name  given  to  the  third  day  of  the  week, 
in  most  of  the  Teutonic  languages,  anfj  wnich  has  been  rendered 
in  Latin  by  Dies  Martis.  Gld  Norse,  Tirsdagr,  Tisdagr  ;  Swed- 
ish, Tisdag ;  Danish,  Tirsdag  ;  German,  Dienstag  ;  Dutch,  Ding- 


216  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

creed,  are  the  personifications  of  the  elementary  con- 
stituents, combinations,  and  operations  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  or  in  other  words,  of  the  laws  and  manifesta- 
tion of  physical  nature  :  they  are,  however,  especially 
represented  as  the  controllers  of  the  astronomical 
year  ;  as  the  governors  of  the  world  ;  and  as  the  ad- 
ministrators of  human  affairs. 

The  Norse  names  of  the  Scandinavian  deities,  are 
As,  god,  Aesir,  gods,  Asynja,  goddess,  Asynjor,  god- 
desses. A  concise  outline  of  the  character  and 
functions  of  some  of  these  frigid  divinities,  is  all  that 
will  be  attempted  or  that  can  be  reasonably  expected 
in  this  place.     Of  Odin  little  is  necessary  to  be  said, 


stag ;  Anglo-Saxon,  Tyrsdaeg,  Tyvesdaeg,  Tivesdaeg ;  English, 
Tuesday."  The  fourth  day  of  the  week  was  honored  with  the 
name  of  the  principal  mundane  divinity  of  the  Teutones,  known 
as  Odin,  Woden,  or  "Wodan,  and  designated,  writes  Walz,  Wo- 
dantag  or  Wonstag,  being  still  denominated  Vodenstag  by  the 
Danes.  The  etymological  deduction  of  the  name  of  this  dav,  is 
thus,  stated  by  M.  Mallet :  "  Old  Norse,  Odinsdagr  ;  Swedish  and 
Danish,  Onsdag ;  Anglo-Saxon,  "YYodenesdaeg,  Wodnesdaeg ;  Eng- 
lish, Wednesday ;  Dutch,  Woensdag."  "  The  fifth  day  of  the  week," 
he  adds,  "  was  consecrated  to  Thor.  Old  Norse,  Thorsdagr  ; 
Swedish  and  Danish,  Torsdag ;  Anglo-Saxon,  Thuresdaeg,  Thurs- 
daeg;  English,  Thursday;  German,  Donnerstag ;  Dutch,  Donder- 
dag  —  the  Thunderer's  day."  Of  Friday,  or  Freyja's  day,  sacred 
to  the  Venus  of  the  Teutonic  people,  he  thus  disposes :  "  Old 
Norse,  Freydagr,  Friadagr ;  Swedish  and  Danish,  Fredag ;  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Frigcdaeg  ;  Dutch,  Vrijdag  ;  German,  Freytag."  As  to 
Saturday,  or  the  old  German  Satcrtag,  it  is  so  named  from  Saturn 
or  Sater  —  Surtur,  properly  written  Surlr,  the  god  of  time,  or 
Chronos :  ay,  the  Supreme  Being  himself,  among  the  Greeks,  the 
Teutonic  race,  etc.  —  G. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  217 

as  the  reader  must  be  already  tolerably  familiar  with 
his  celestial  majesty.  Not  only  does  he  respond  to 
the  name  Alfadir,  but  to  that  of  Valfadir  —  Wahl- 
Vater  ;  for  he  chooses  for  his  sons  all  those  who 
bravely  fall  in  battle.  It  is  for  their  especial  benefit 
that  he  has  prepared  Valhalla  and  Vingolf,  where 
they  are  distinguished  by  the  title  of  Einherjar — 
select  heroes.  The  insignia  of  this  warlike  god,  the 
Mars  par  excellence  of  the  Teutonic  people,  are  a 
golden  casque,  a  resplendent  cuirass,  and  a  most 
formidable  scimitar. 

In  his  highest  planetary  power  and  effulgence, 
Odin  is  recognized  as  the  sun-god  —  the  primary 
impersonation  of  the  zodiacal  cycle.  Frigga,  the 
queen  of  the  Norse  pantheon,  a  fair  and  graceful 
goddess,  is  the  wife  of  Alfadir,  and  the  same  as  the 
goddess  Hertha  —  the  earth,  among  the  ancient  Ger- 
mans. She  has  the  faculty  of  foreseeing  the  desti- 
nies "of  mankind,  but  the  caution  never  to  reveal 
them.  In  this  rare  vaticinal  gift,  she  is  said  to  have 
stood  unrivalled  among  the  Scandinavian  divinities. 

Thor  is  a  son  of  Odin,  and  like  the  rest  of  the 
Norse  deities,  he  is  exemplary  in  his  obedience  to- 
wards the  common  father  of  the  Aesir  race.  He  is 
decidedly  regarded  as  the  most  powerful  of  his  com- 
peers. Thrudheim  —  the  realm  of  strength,  is  his 
celestial  abode.  He  is  emphatically  the  Hercules 
among  these  northern  deities,  and  continually  en- 
gaged in  combating  giants  and  other  typified  princi- 
ples of  evil.  The  god  of  thunder  appears  painted  on 
a  car  drawn  by  two  rams  or  he-goats,  whose  heads 
are  incased  in  silver  bridles,  while  his  own  awful 
brow  is  encircled  with  a  wreath  of  stars.     A  team  is 

19 


218  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

of  the  highest  importance  to  him ;  for  he  travels  al- 
most incessantly,  upon  the  electric  wheels  of  the 
hissing,  rumbling  thunderclouds !  His  usual  em- 
blems are  a  crown  upon  his  head,  a  sceptre  in  one 
hand,  and  a  mallet  in  the  other.  His  mallet,,  a 
veritable  thunderbolt,  he  is  in  the  habit  of  hurling 
into  the  air  against  the  rebellious  frost  and  mountain- 
giants  ;  and  many  have  been  the  fractured  skulls 
which  this  mischievous  race  has  had  occasion  to  de- 
plore. 

Ovid  thus  graphically  delineates  the  manner  in 
which  the  giants  were  accustomed  to  wage  war 
against  heaven,  and  the  terrible  expedient  which  Ju- 
piter, the  Thor  of  Scandinavia,  invariably  adopted 
to  demolish  their  proud  bulwarks,  and  hurl  the  inso- 
lent foe  to  the  earth  :  — 

"  Nor  were  the  gods  themselves  more  safe  above,* 
Against  beleaguer'd  heaven  the  giants  move, 
Hills  piled  on  hills,  on  mountains  mountains  lie, 
To  make  their  mad  approaches  to  the  sky ; 
Till  Jove,  no  longer  patient,  took  his  time 
To  avenge  with  thunder  their  audacious  crime. 
Red  lightning  play'd  along  the  firmament, 
And  their  demolish'd  works  to  pieces  rent. 
Singed  with  the  flames,  and  with  the  bolts  transfix'd, 
With  native  earth  their  blood  the  monsters  mix'd. 
The  blood,  endued  with  animating  heat, 
Did,  in  the  impregnant  earth,  new  sons  beget. 
They,  like  the  seed  from  which  they  sprung,  accursed, 
Against  the  gods  immortal  hatred  nursed  ; 
An  impious,  arrogant,  and  cruel  brood, 
Expressing  their  original  from  blood." 

*  This  line  of  the  poet  alludes  to  the  iron  age  of  the  world, 
when  vice  in  its  multiform  shapes,  represented  as  so  many 
giants,  not  content  to  have  banished  virtue  from  the  earth,  aimed 
also  to  pollute  heaven  with  its  unhallowed  touch.  —  G.  „ 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  219 

Whenever  Thor  wishes  to  grasp  the  handle  of  his 
terrible  weapon,  the  thunderbolt  or  electric  mallet, 
he  is  obliged  to  put  on  his  iron  gauntlets.  He  also 
wears  a  magical  belt,  known  as  the  belt  of  strength, 
and  whenever  he  girds  it  about  his  divine  person,  his 
celestial  power  is  doubly  augmented. 

Baldur  *  is  the  mildest,  the  wisest,  and  the  most 
eloquent  of  all  the  Ae'sir ;  and  'such  too  is  the  un- 
swerving rectitude  of  his  character,  that  his  decision 
is  never  reversed,  or  its  legality  even  suspected.  He 
likewise  is  Odin's  son,  and  universally  esteemed  in 
the  creed  of  the  Scandinavians  as  the  preeminently 
good  god.  Such  is  the  extraordinary  lustre  of  his 
person  and  features,  that  a  halo  of  the  most  daz- 
zling glory  eradiates  from  them.  His  hair  is  white 
as  the  virgin  snow.  This  benignant  and  holy  being 
lives  in  Brcidablik  —  the  region  of  ample  vision.  As 
the  highest  type  of  spiritual  perfection  and  ethical 
excellence  which  can  distinguish  a  mundane  divinity, 
Baldur  is  the  personification  of- all  that  is  morally 
great  and  good,  and  therefore  the  converse  of  Loki  — 
the  satan  in  the  Norse  system  of  faith,  who  always 
hates  him  with  the  force  and  intensity  of  an  inveter- 
ate malice,  and  never  ceases  to  persecute  and  annoy 
him  till  at  last  he  succeeds  to  accomplish  his  destruc- 
tion :  sin  prevails  over  holiness,  and  now  the  death 
of  the  gods  and  the  dissolution  of  the  world,  are  rap- 


*  The  proper  orthography  of  Baldur,  also  written  Ballder,  is 
Baldr  or  Balldr ;  but  as  the  English  Grammar  recognizes  no  similar 
syllabieal  law,  I  have  followed  the  example  of  other  authors  and 
written  the  Norse  words  which  end  thus,  either  by  introducing  a 
vowel  into  the  final  syllable,  or  by  rejecting  the  final  consonant 


220  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

idly  approaching.  Ay,  the  gods  too,  to  divest  them- 
selves of  the  gross  material  elements  with  which  their 
natures  are  allied,  must  die ;  but  their  death  is  an 
evolution  from  a  less  to  a  more  perfect  state  of  ex- 
istence. Man  likewise  needs  purgation  and  further 
development ;  and  even  the  material  world  is  suscep- 
tible of  improvement,  and  destined  to  experience 
renovation.  Death  Is  life  in  embryo.  Baldur's  body 
is  burned, — the  prelude  and  emblem  of  the  confla- 
gration of  the  world,  and  his  ashes  are  committed  to 
a  watery  grave  in  the  sea  :  he  returns  again  to  his 
origin,  and  the  origin  of  all  creation  —  the  dropping1 
waters  in  Ginnunga-gap,  warmed  and  fructified  by 
the  breath  of  the  Almighty  !  Baldur  the  immaculate 
—  the  saviour,  goes  to  Hel*  the  abode  of  the  deatl : 
he  has  fallen  a  victim  to  the  temporarily  omnipotent 
power  of  evil. 

Nanna  grieves  to  such  a  degree  at  the  untimely 
fate  of  her  beloved  Baldur,  that  she  too  dies  and  fol- 
lows her  husband  into  the  spirit-world.  Baldur  gives 
his  gold  ring,  Draupner,  to  Hermod,  who  has  come, 
but  failed  to  procure  his  liberation  from  Hel,  to  pre- 
sent it  as  a  keepsake  to  Odin.  Nanna  also  sends 
Frigga  a  necklace,  beside  other  costly  gifts,  and  to 
Fulla  a  gold  finger-ring ;  the  pledges  and  symbols  of 
a  palingenesia  and  perpetuity  of  the  nobler  elements, 
and  diviner  forms  of  the  lower  and  upper  world ;  for 
both  are  inclosed  in  the    Worroltring  —  the   world- 


*  Hel,  in  the  Scandinavian  mythology,  is  synonymous  with  the 
hell,  or  Hades  —  the  lower  regions  of  other  creeds,  with  the  im- 
portant exception,  however,  that  it  does  not  imply  either  a  place 
or  a.  state  of  punishment 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  221 

ring,  which  He  that  sent  the  Muspell-breeze  into 
Ginnunga-gap,  assigned  as  the  ample  but  unalterably 
fixed  limit  of  the  duration  of  the  universe. 

The  myth  continues  to  inform  us  that  some  of  the 
gods,  as  Baldur,  Vidar,  Vali,  etc.,  shall   survive  this 
wreck  of  time,  and  crash  of  worlds  ;  that  a  new  earth 
all  verdant  and  lovely,  with  delightful  fields  where 
the  grain  will  grow  in  spontaneous  profusion,  shall 
emerge  from  the  sea  ;  and  that  a  man  named  Lif- 
thrasir  —  the    longlived,    and  a    woman   known    as 
Lif  —  life,  lying  concealed  during  the  conflagration, 
in  Hodmimir's  forest,  and  subsisting  upon  the  dew  of 
the  morning,  shall  replenish  the  rejuvenated  world 
with  their  offspring.     Njord  dwells  in  the  heavenly 
mansion  Noatun.      He  is  the  Neptune  of  the  Scan- 
dinavians ;  has  dominion  over  the  winds  ;  checks  the 
fury  of  the  sea  and  of  the  fire  ;  and  is  worshipped 
with  peculiar  ardor  by  seafarers  and  fishermen.      His 
lineage  is  not  that  of  the  Aesir  generally  ;  for  he  was 
born  and  bred  in  Vanaheim  —  the  abode  of  the  Va- 
nir :   the  personifications   of  mind  and  spirituality. 
The  Vanir  gave  him  as  a  hostage  to  the  Aesir,  re- 
ceiving from   them   Hcenir   in   his    stead.     By  this 
means   peace  was  restored  between  them  and  the 
gods.    Njord  is,  therefore,  to  be  regarded  as  the  medi- 
ator between  a  mixed  and  pure   spirituality.     The 
name  of  his  heroic  wife  is  Skadi,  the  daughter  of 
Thjassi  the  giant.     The  rocky  regions  of  Thrymheim, 
mark  the  locality  of  her  residence.     She  is  decidedly 
the  Minerva  of  the  Norse  pantheon.     Fastening  on 
her  snow-skades  and  taking  her  bow,  she  pleasantly 
passes  her  time  in  the  chase  of  savage  beasts,  and  is 

19* 


222  THE  HEATHEN   RELIGION 

hence  called  Ondurdis  —  snow-skates  !  She  is  the 
feminine  impersonation  of  virtue  combating  vice. 

Frey  and  Freyja  claim  to  be  the  children  of  Njord. 
They  are  celebrated  for  their  power  and  beauty,  and 
Frey  can  justly  boast  to  be  one  of  the  most  renowned 
of  the  gods.  Rain  and  sunshine,  as  well  as  all  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  are  under  his  august  supervision  ; 
and  in  order  to  secure  the  blessings  of  riches,  peace, 
and  an  abundant  harvest,  his  name  is  ever  devoutly 
to  be  invoked.  The  hermaphrodite  formation  of  this 
divinity,  is  to  typify  productiveness. 

On  some  occasions  of  state,  Frey  rides  out  in  a 
car  drawn  by  a  boar,  named  Gullinbursti :  a  safe 
way  of  travelling  probably,  but  an  awkward  and  slow 
one  we  are  inclined  to  think !  Freyja  —  the  Frau,  his 
lovely  sister,  is  the  Venus,  or  goddess  of  love,  among 
the  Teutonic  people,  and  the  most  propitious  of  all 
their  female  divinities.  Her  habitation  in  heaven  is 
denominated  Folkvang,  which  literally  signifies  the 
folk's  mead,  or  dwelling,  and  which  contains  a  hall  call- 
ed Sessrymnir  —  the  room  of  many  seats,  which  is  ap- 
propriated to  a  moiety  of  all  who  die  in  battle  ;  for  to 
whatever  field  of  battle  the  goddess  rides,  she  boldly 
asserts  her  right  to  one  half  of  the  slain,  while  she 
cheerfully  resigns  the  other  half  to  Odin  as  his  just 
share.  The  charming  Freyja  is  in  the  habit  of  sal- 
lying forth  from  her  celestial  abode  in  a  carriage, 
moving  after  the  soft  and  noiseless  tread  of  a  team 
of  cats. 

The  learned  Icelander,  Finn  Magnusen,  regards 
Frey  and  Freyja  as  the  personifications  of  the  sun 
and  moon,  and  in  our  opinion  justly  so.  Tyr,  the 
most  daring  and  intrepid  of  all  the  gods,  next  de- 
mands our  notice. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  223 

It  is  he  who  dispenses  valor  in  war,  and  hence 
warriors  devoutly  invoke  his  celestial  aid.  Though 
his  wisdom  deservedly  ranks  high,  his  bravery  is  pre- 
eminent ;  and  a  man  who  excels  others  in  strength 
and  puissant  feats,  is  distinguished  by  the  title  of 
Tyr  —  strong. 

Bragi's  wisdom  and  eloquence  confer  upon  him 
an  enviable  distinction  among  the  gods.  In  poetry 
he  is  universally,  admitted  to  be  unrivalled,  and  he 
may  therefore  be  set  down  as  the  poet-laureate  at 
the  court  of  the  Scandinavian  divinities.  Bragr  is 
accordingly  the  Norse  name  of  the  poetic  art.  To 
brag  is  derived  from  the  root  braga,  to  glisten,  to 
shine,  or  from  bragga,  to  adorn,  and  a  braggart  is,  I 
regret  to  say  it,  a  poet !  The  name  of  Bragi's 
consort  is  Iduna  or  Ithun.  To  her  keeping  are  in- 
trusted the  golden  apples  which  the  gods,  when  they 
feel  old  age  approaching,  have  only  to  taste  to  become 
young  again.  Iduna's  apples,  we  may  remark,  typify 
the  ripe,  mellow  fruit,  generated  in  the  season  of 
summer.  As  long  as  the  gods,  —  physical  nature 
personified,  subsist  upon  this  food :  the  reward  and 
the  evidence  of  their  agrarian  activity,  they  live. 
The  fruit  of  one  year  is  the  seed  of  another,  and 
hence  the  more  the  gods  eat,  the  more  abundant  will 
be  the  crops.  The  betrayal  of  Iduna  with  her  aureal 
fruit  into  the  power  of  Thiassi,  a  notorious  frost- 
giant,  through  the  atrocious  treachery  of  Loki,  is  em- 
blematical of  winter  and  its  sterility. 

Heimdall  the  white  god,  resides  in  Himinbjorg, — 
heaven-mountains,  at  the  termination  of  Bifrost,  the 
aerial  or  rainbow  bridge.  He  is  the  warder  of  the 
gods,  and  is  therefore  placed  on  the  confines  of  heaven, 


224  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

to  prevent  the  hostile  giants  from  forcing  a  pas- 
sage over  the  bridge  :  be  is,  in  short,  the  valiant  de- 
fender of  mind  against  matter,  and  of  organized  life 
against  inorganic  existence.  His  important  vocation 
demands  his  presence  everywhere  in  his  vast  empire, 
and  to  facilitate  his  progress  from  place  to  place,  he 
makes  use  of  his  famous  steed  GuUtopp — the  golden- 
maned. 

Forseti,  the  son  of  Baldur  and  Nanna,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Nef,  occupies  the  celestial  mansion  Glit- 
nir.  By  the  tenure  of  his  office,  he  is  the  consti- 
tutional arbitrator  of  all  questions  of  law,  and  all 
litigants  who  submit  their  cases  to  his  decision,  go 
away  perfectly  satisfied  with  their  treatment,  and 
fully  reconciled  to  each  other.  Indeed,  they  have  no. 
reason  to  find  fault ;  for  his  judgment  is  invariably 
founded  upon  the  nature  of  things  or  the  condi- 
tions of  being,  and  by  it  every  one  must  necessarily 
abide. 

Ullur,  the  step-son  of  Thor,  is  not  only  a  skilful 
archer,  but  as  an  accomplished  skater  on  the  bleak 
fields  of  frozen  snow  between  the  Baltic  and  the  Arc- 
tic ocean,  he  is  declared  to  be  unequalled.  While 
in  personal  appearance  he  is  admitted  by  all  to  be 
exceedingly  prepossessing,  his  merits  as  a  warrior  are 
undisputed. 

As  to  Vidar,  notwithstanding  the  thick  clumsy  shoes 
which  he  wears,  and  his  proverbially  taciturn  dispo- 
sition, he  is  a  god  in  whom  his  compeers  place  the 
utmost  reliance  in  critical  conjunctures  ;  for,  in  won- 
derful prowess  and  courage,  he  is  almost  equal  to  the 
potent,  daring  Thor  himself. 

Of  Vali,  who  is  represented  as  the  son  of  Odin 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  225 

and  Rinda  —  the  crust  of  the  earth,  though  accord- 
ing to  the  cosmogony  of  the  Scandinavians,  he  is  the 
brother  of  the  Alfadir,  we  need  only  state  that  he  is 
favorably  known  on  account  of  his  martial  qualities, 
and  that  he  is  the  worthy  symbol  of  the  nobler  strug- 
gles of  good  against  evil. 

Though  the  number  of  the  Scandinavian  divini- 
ties or  deistic  personifications,  compared  with  that 
of  some  other  ancient  nations,  is  exceedingly  small, 
it  deserves  to  be  remarked  that  the  preceding  enu- 
meration of  them  comprises  only  about  one  half  of 
the  celestial  nomenclature.  Some,  whose  importance 
or  mythic  connection  may  especially  claim  our  atten- 
tion hereafter,  will  be  introduced  to  the  notice  of  the 
reader,  though  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  by  a  careful 
attention  to  the  foregoing  delineations,  he  must  be 
already  pretty  well  acquainted  with  the  character 
and  history  of  this  interesting  and  ingenuous  family 
of  deities. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SCANDINAVIAN    GODS    IN     THEIR     PLANETARY     RELA- 
TION   TO    MANKIND. 

The  abodes  or  mansions  of  the  gods,  noticed  in 
the  previous  chapter,  are,  in  the  opinion  of  some 
learned  Norse  scholars,  the  zodiacal  signs  in  the  eclip- 
tic, and  hence  they  suppose  the  Scandinavian  my- 
thology to  be  founded  upon  astronomy,  and  that  its 


226  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

gods  are  planetary  gods,  in  which  capacity  they  are 
to  be  especially  viewed  in  their  relation  to  the  three 
leading  planets  in  our  system,  the  earth,  the  sun, 
and  the  moon,  whose  influence  upon  human  affairs 
is  most  decidedly  felt,  and  universally  acknowledged. 
Contemplated  in  this  light,  we  proceed  to  an  eluci- 
dation of  the  subject. 

Thor,  the  opener  of  the  year,  begins  his  reign  at 
the  period  of  the  vernal  equinox,  in  the  sign  of  Aries  ; 
and  as  such  he  is  symbolical  of  time  and  terrestrial 
fecundity.  Next  comes  Ullur  in  Taurus,  when  the 
earth  begins  to  develop  its  latent  energies,  and  gives 
promise  of  future  plenty  ;  and  therefore  the  horn  of 
taurus,  or  the  ox,  is  typical  of  agrarian  abundance  : 
it  is  the  horn  of  plenty,  so  frequently  quoted  in  the 
ornate  effusions  of  poets  and  orators.  Frey,  the 
floral  god,  who  is  at  once  the  lovely  and  the  loving, 
takes  his  turn  in  Gemini,  and  is  now  in  the  bloom 
and  vigor  of  his  strength,  of  which  his  sword  is  the 
emblem.  June,  or  Cancer,  claims  the  presence  of 
Odin,  and  the  sun-god  is  now  in  the  culmination  of 
his  divine  might :  his  creative  and  maturing  planet- 
ary influence  is  complete.  At  this  point  of  the  eclip- 
tic the  sun  "begins  its  recession  from  the  northern 
hemisphere, —  Odin  dies  ;  retires  to  his  hall  Valhalla, 
in  July  ;  and  in  August,  he  already  occupies  Glad- 
sheim  —  glad-home,  or  the  abode  of  bliss,  as  the  fa- 
ther of  souls.  Skadi  succeeds  in  Libra,  or  Sep- 
tember ;  and  Baldur,  the  good,  takes  his  station  in 
Scorpion,  or  October,  after  the  autumnal  equinox. 
As  to  Heimdall,  the  preserver  of  the  planetary  world, 
ne  demands  Sagittarius,  or  November,  for  his  portion 
of  zodiacal  sway ;  while  Freyja,  the  delight,  is  con- 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  227 

tent  with  December,  or  Capricorn.  Forseti  takes 
possession  of  Aquarius,  or  January  ;  Njord  of  Pisces, 
or  February ;  and  Vidar,  without  any  definite  abode, 
closes  the  cycle  of  the  year,  of  the  quiet,  silent  de- 
parture of  which  he  is  the  type.  Hence  he  is  called 
the  silent  god. 

According  to  another  planetary  arrangement  of 
the  year,  and  of  the  gods,  Ullur  commences  the  zodi- 
acal revolution  in  Sagittarius,  and  is  successively  fol- 
lowed by  Frey,  Vali,  Saga,  Odin,  Skadi,  Baldur, 
Heimdall,  Freyja,  Forseti,  Njord,  and  Vidar.  Which 
of  these  systems  approaches  nearest  to  the  truth,  I 
am  unable  to  determine :  both  may  have  prevailed 
at  different  periods  of  the  world  ;  but  this  I  know, 
that  the  year  among  the  northern  nations  of  Europe 
was  computed  from  one  winter  solstice  to  another, 
as  the  month  was  from  one  new  moon  to  the  next. 
They  accordingly  called  the  night,  at  the  winter  sol- 
stice, the  mother-night,  as  that  which  produced  all  the 
rest ;  as,  in  short,  the  birth  of  time  ! 

The  care  which  the  gods  exercised  over  the  souls 
and  bodies  of  mankind  in  the  different  stages  of  their 
present  existence,  corresponds  to  the  attention  which 
they  paid  to  the  government  of  the  solar  year  in  its 
various  phases,  and  may  be  microcosmically  thus  ex- 
pressed, in  reference  to  the  body :  Freyja  is  the 
birth,  Forseti  the  nurse  or  guardian,  Njord  the  nour- 
ishment, Thor  the  vigor,  Ullur  the  growth,  Frey  the 
pubescent  period,  Odin  the  procreation  and  death.* 

*  The  philosophy  of  the  Teutonic  people  taught  them  that 
generation  is  not  only  life  but  death  —  in  embryo,  and  to  this 
proposition  the  science  of  biology  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
must  bow  assent. 


228  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

In  relation  to  the  soul,  Saga  is  the  nurse,  Odin,  in 
his  character  of  Alfadir,  the  food,  Skadi  the  strength, 
Baldur  the  development,  Heimdall  the  consumma- 
tion, when  it  is  ripe  for  an  entrance  into  a  higher 
sphere  of  being.  This  ripeness  of  the  soul  for  a 
change,  expresses  itself  in  a  longing  after  greater 
perfection ;  and  hence  Heimdall,  who  inhabits  Him- 
inbjorg  —  the  heaven-mountains,  and  who  is  both 
the  watchman  of  heaven  and  the  soul  of  the  world, 
is  also  the  conductor  of  the  souls  into  celestial  bliss, 
and  the  final  realization  of  their  ardent  and  irrepres- 
sible desires  after  a  happier  and  more  exalted  state 
of  existence. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    SCANDINAVIAN    COSMOGONY. 

In  the  day  spring  of  ages,  or  the  beginning  of  time, 
according  to  the  mytho-cosmogonic  poem,  entitled 
the  Voluspa  —  the  song  of  the  prophetess,  the  prime- 
val state  of  material  creation,  was  a  vast,  void  abyss, 
called  Ginnunga-gap :  the  cvp  or  gulf  of  delusion; 
thus  denominated  asreeablv  to  the  macrocosmic  creed 
of  the  Teutonic  people,  who  taught  that  generation 
is  a  union  of  the  two  antitheses  of  light  and  dark- 
ness, or  fire  and  water,  whose  resultant,  or  offspring, 
is  a  delusion  or  death  under  the  semblance  of  life. 
It  is,  too,  the  magical  link  between  the  north  and  the 
south  poles  of  creation.  Into  this  capacious  cup  — 
light,  as  imponderable  ether,  flowed  from  the  south, 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  229 

or  at  least  from  a  torrid  region,  the  envenomed 
streams  of  Elivagar —  the  dropping  waters,  and  the 
further  they  receded  from  their  source,  the  more  the 
venom  in  them  —  the  heat,  considered  as  the  antag- 
onism of  cold,  became  reduced  in  its  temperature, 
and  at  last  the  fluid  mass  congealed  in  Ginnunga- 
gap*  The  northern,  nebulous,  and  dark  region  of 
this  inane  matrix  of  a  rising  world,  is  Nebelheim,  or 
Mist-home,  commonly  known  as  Nilfheim  —  a  dis- 
mal place  of  ice  and  night  and  mist :  the  genesis  of 
the  world.  There  is  located  Hvergelmir,  or  the  spring 
of  hot  water,  from  which  issue  twelve  rivers.  The 
southern  tract  of  the  abyss  was  illuminated  by  the 
glowing  rays  emanating  from  the  sphere  or  abode  of 
light,  designated  Muspellheim,  the  place  in  which 
headed  the  waters  of  Elivagar.  From  this  torrid 
zone  of  the  infant  universe,  blew  a  scorching  wind, 
which  dissolved  the  frozen  waters  of  the  Elivagar :  f 
they  distilled*  in  living  drops,  and  he  that  sent  the  hot 


*  The  venom  -which  they  rolled  along  hardened,  as  does  dross 
that  runs  from  a  furnace,  and  became  ice :  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
heat  was  abstracted  to  convert  the  water  into  a  gelid  mass.  When 
the  rivers  flowed  no  longer,  the  venom  gathered  over  it  —  the  ice : 
the  heat  escaping  from  the  freezing  waters,  froze  to  rime,  and  in 
this  manner  were  formed  in  Gmnunga-gap  many  layers  of  con- 
gealed vapor,  piled  one  over  the  other.  Such  being  the  condition 
of  the  northern  part  of  the  abyss,  whilst  everywhere  within  were 
whirlwinds  and  fleeting  mists,  and  the  southern  portion  of  it  was 
luminous  with  the  sparks  and  scintillations  that  were  wafted  into 
it  from  Muspellheim.  —  Northern  Antiquities. 

f  In  the  following  lines,  translated  by  Dryden,  Ovid  gives  an 
analogous  picture  of  nascent  creation :  — 

u  Heat  and  cold  were  in  one  body  fix'd, 
And  soft  with  hard,  and  light  with  heavy,  mix'd." 

20 


230  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

wind,  created  out  of  them  the  giant  Ymir,  in  the 
likeness  of  man:*  a  fact  which  represents  heat,  in 
its  various  modifications,  as  the  active,  and  cold,  in 
its  different  phases,  as  the  passive,  principle  of  gen- 
eration. Simultaneously  with  Ymir,  and  in  the 
same  manner,  the  cow  Audhumla  —  the  symbol  of 
the  nobler  parts  of  matter,  and  hence  the  antithesis 
of  the  giant,  is  called  into  existence.  From  her 
capacious  udder  flowed  four  streams  of  milk,  which 
constituted  the  luscious  and  healthful  nourishment 
of  Ymir.  By  licking  the  stones  that  were  covered 
with  salt  and  hoar-frost,  she  succeeded,  in  the  space 
of  three  days,  in  producing  a  superior  being,  called 
Bur  or  Buri,  in  the  similitude  of  man ;  fair  propor- 
tioned, beautiful,  and  strong.  It  now  happened  that 
Ymir  fell  asleep  and  sweated  profusely  —  the  sweat 
appears  to  have  been  blood;  the  result  was  that 
from  the  pit  of  his  left  arm  was  born  a  man  and  a 
woman,  while  one  of  his  feet  engendered  with  the 
other  a  son. 

From  this  marvellous  progeny  sprang  the  race  of 
frost-giants  —  Hrimthursen  ;  a  race  evil  and  depraved 

*  The  being  who  put  forth  this  creative  energy  must  of  course 
be  God,  or  the  metaphysically  Supreme  Being  in  statu  abscondito. 
Is  he  the  same  as  Surtur,  who  sits  upon  the  borders  of  the  lumi- 
nous and  glowing  regions  of  Muspellheim,  io  guard  it  ?  "  In  his 
hand  "  —  Surtur's,  we  arc  told  in  the  Northern  Antiquities,  "  he 
beareth  a  flaming  falchion,  and  at  the  end  of  the  world,  he  shall 
come  forth  to  combat,  and  shall  vanquish  all  the  gods,  and  con- 
sume the  universe  with  fire."  To  me  it  seems  evident  that  the 
invisible  God,  or  God  in  statu  abscondito,  who  sent  the  genial  heat 
into  Ginnunga-gap  from  Muspellheim,  and  created  Ymir,  etc.,  is 
the  God  of  gods,  or  Surtur,  who  will  survive  when  the  gods  and 
the  world  shall  be  no  more ! 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  231 

like  Ymir  their  sire.  After  this,  Buri's  son,  Bor  mar- 
ried a  Joten,  or  giant-woman,  whose  name  was  Besla, 
the  daughter  of  Bolthorn,  and  the  illustrious  fruit  of 
this  union,  were  the  three  gods  Odin,  Vili,  and  Ve.* 
The  following  tragic  incident  clearly  shows  that  up 
to  this  period,  the  displays  of  creative  power  are  to 
be  regarded  as  mere  preludes  to  the  formation  of  the 
universe;  Ymir  and  the  sons  of  Bor  scarcely  pos- 
sessed a  trait  of  character  in  common,  and  their 
uncongenial  tempers  naturally  made  them  inimical 
towards  each  other.  What  might  reasonably  be 
expected  under  such  inauspicious  circumstances, 
soon  happened,  and  the  latter  fell  upon  the  unfor- 
tunate giant  and  slew  him ;  and  such  were  the  co- 
pious discharges  of  blood  from  his  wounds,  that  the 
whole  race  of  ice  and  frost-giants  was  drowned  in 
its  floods,  except  Bergelmir,  who,  with'iiis  wife, 
saved  himself  in  a  bark,  and  was  thus  permitted  to 
transmit  the  younger  branch  of  the  giant-race.  The 
time  has  now  arrived  when  the  world  is  to  be  fairly 
ushered  into  existence,  and  the  three  divine  sons  of 
Bor,  dragging  the  murdered  remains  of  their  victim 
into  the  midst  of  Ginnunga-gap,  begin  the  stupen- 
dous task  of  its  creation.     Of  the  flesh  of  Ymir,  they 


*  Ymir,  or  the  mundane  body,  is  a  hermaphrodite,  and  the  em- 
blem of  rude,  undivided  matter  :  organic  food  sustains.  Audhuni- 
la  —  also  written  Audhumbla,  is  the  primeval  realization  of  a 
distinct  gender  in  the  individual,  and  the  impersonation  of  the 
idea  of  mother  of  all  things,  both  of  the  world  and  of  the  gods. 
The  salt  which  she  licked  from  the  stones,  is  the  mineral  which 
was  universally  regarded  by  the  Teutonic  people  as  the  motive 
and  formative  principle  in  organic  creation ;  and  among  them, 
was  literally  the  salt  of  the  earth  ! 


232  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

made  the  earth ;  of  his  blood,  the  ocean  and  the 
rivers ;  of  his  huge  bones,  the  mountains ;  of  his 
teeth,  his  jaw-bones,  and  the  splinters  of  some  of  his 
broken  bones,  the  rocks  and  the  cliffs ;  of  his  hair, 
the  trees ;  of  his  brain,  the  clouds ;  and  of  his  eye- 
brows, Midgard  —  the  abode  of  man.  Besides,  of 
his  ample  skull,  they  constructed  the  vault  of  heaven, 
and  poised  it  upon  the  four  remotest  pillars  of  the 
earth,  placing  under  each  pillar  a  dwarf,  the  name 
of  each  respectively  corresponding  to  one  of  the 
cardinal  points  of  the  horizon.  The  sparks  and  cin- 
ders which  were  wafted  into  the  abyss  from  the 
tropical  region  of  Muspellheim,  they  fixed  in  the 
centre  of  the  celestial  concave,  above  and  below 
Ginnunga-gap,  to  supply  it  and  the  earth  with  light 
and  heat. 

At  this  stage  of  creation  the  important  science 
of  chronology  was  introduced,  and  days  and  years 
began  to  be  distinguished  and  numbered.  The 
world  being  now  in  a  suitable  condition  for  the  habi- 
tation of  man,  the  progenitors  of  our  race,  according 
to  the  Voluspa,  were  created  in  the  following  man- 
ner :  Three  mighty  and  beneficent  Aesir,  leaving  the 
assembly  of  the  gods,  took  a  walk  to  the  sea-strand, 
and  there  found  two  trees,  or  as  some  assert,  two 
sticks,  floating  upon  the  water,  powerless  and  with- 
out destiny.  Odin  gave  them  breath  and  life  ;  Honir, 
souls  and  motion ;  and  Lodur,  speech,  beauty,  sight, 
and  hearing.*     They  then  called  the  man  Askr  — 

*  In  their  account  of  this  interesting  and  wonderful  performance, 
the  Northern  Antiquities  vary  a  little  from  the  text.  From  them, 
it  appears  that  the  creators  of  the  first  human  pair,  are  all  sons  of 
Bbr ;  that  the  oldest  of  them  —  Odin,  conferred  upon  the  man  and 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  233 

the  ash,  and  the  woman,  Embla  —  the  alder,  in  allu- 
sion to  their  dendronic  origin;  and  these  were  the 
individuals  from  whom  have  sprung  mankind,  des- 
tined to  reside  in  Midgard —  mid-garden,  mid-girth, 
mid-sphere  :  the  habitable  globe.  It  may  be  observed 
here,  that  the  component  parts  of  man  correspond  to 
matter,  mind,  and  organic  life,  and  that  the  first  has 
its  type  or  analogue  in  the  Joten,  or  giants ;  the 
second,  in  the-  Vanir,  or  pure  spirits  —  die  Wanen  ; 
and  the  last,  in  the  Aesir,  or  gods  —  beings  inter- 
mediate between  both.*  Midgard,  or  the  abode  of 
man,  already  adverted  to,  yet  briefly  claims  our 
attention.  According  to  Eddaic  lore,  it  is  necessary 
in  order  to  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  topography  of 
Midgard,  to  conceive  the  earth  to  be  as  round  as  a 
ring,  or  as  a  disk  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean,  encircled 
by  Jormungand,  the  great  Midgard-serpent,  holding 
its  tail  in  its  mouth,  the  outer  shores  of  the  ocean 
forming  the  mountainous  regions  of  Jotunheim  — 
giant-home,  assigned  in  fee-simple  to   the  perverse 


woman  life  and  souls ;  the  second  —  Yili,  motion  and  knowledge ; 
and  the  third  —  Ve,  the  gifts  mentioned  above,  with  the  addition 
of  raiment. 

*  All  creation,  even  the  gods  not  excepted,  being  made  of 
Ymir  the  mortal,  and  mundane  body,  is  liable  to  dissolution. 
Death  originates  birth  or  being  —  as  is  exemplified  by  the  dead 
body  of  Ymir,  and  birth,  death :  and  death  is  therefore  —  delight- 
ful thought !  the  pledge  of  life ;  the  transition-state  of  existence. 
Death  inflicted  upon  Ymir,  is  the  unhappy  cause  of  perpetual 
enmity  between  the  sons  of  Bor  and  the  giants :  the  symbol  of  the 
dualism  in  creation  —  rude  matter  and  organic  being,  and  mind 
and  sensuousness.  Only  the  Vanir — the  impersonations  of  mind 
and  ideality,  are  indestructible  as  the  pure  spirit-emanations  of  the 
Eternal. 

20* 


234  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Ymir  race  by  the  generous  sons  of  Bor.  In  the 
centre  of  this  terrestrial  ring  or  disk,  these  indefati- 
gable divinities  erected  a  citadel  from  the  eyebrows 
of  Ymir,  against  the  inroads  of  their  belligerent 
frontier  neighbors ;  and  this  is  Midgard,  the  work 
of  gods  and  the  home  of  man.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
duty  of  the  latter  to  defend  and  cherish  it  against 
all  the  boreal  powers  of  evil,  —  the  storms  and  hail, 
the  ice  and  snow,  as  well  as  the  gigantic  mountains, 
which  raise  their  threatening  peaks  in  stern  defiance 
above  the  clouds :  in  short,  to  keep  watch  and  ward 
over  it  despite  of  every  adverse  physical  influence. 
These  latter  are  giants  of  the  lofty  alpine  species, 
and  hence  we  arrive  at  the  origin  of  the  elves,  and 
the  alp,  or  nightmare.  In  the  German,  the  phrase 
Alpen-Druck  still  commemorates  the  myth  of  the 
elves  of  darkness.  The  clouds  which  float  in  the 
circumambient  air  above  Midgard,  are,  as  has  been 
stated,  the  spongy  productions  of  Ymir's  brain, 
flung  into  space.  They  loom  up  from  the  border- 
land of  Ymir's  race,  and  are  variable  and  deceitful, 
like  the  source  from  which  they  are  derived.  Their 
dark  hue  and  tempestuous  character  are  emblemati- 
cal of  the  gloomy  thoughts  and  violent  passions  of 
Ymir.  They  borrow  their  brilliant  tints  from  the 
luminaries  of  heaven,  but  their  beauty  is  delusive ; 
and  there  is  continual  strife  between  them  and 
these  bodies,  —  the  resplendent  and  benign  emana- 
tions of  empyrean  Muspellheim.  Who  can  doubt, 
that  the  rigorous  and  dreary  winter  of  Scandinavia 
is  admirably  calculated  to  furnish  abundant  mate- 
rials  for  such   fanciful  and  dismal  reflections,  and 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  235 

that  the  families  of  Boreus  and  Ymir  are  allied  by- 
ties  of  a  close  affinity  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ASGARD    AND    THE    GOLDEN   AGE. 

The  sons  of  Bor  —  according  to  Mone,  the  gods 
without  distinction  of  rank  or  number  —  instead 
of  reposing  upon  their  well-earned  demiurgic  laurels, 
continued  to  display  their  celestial  skill  in  the  con- 
struction of  an  abode  —  a  city  or  castle,  for  their 
own  use,  in  the  centre  of  the  universe,  which  they 
denominated  Asgard  —  the  abode  of  the  gods. 
From  this  exalted  habitation,  the  assiduous  gods 
were  in  the  habit  of  going  forth  to  perform  their 
manifold  and  arduous  duties,  both  on  earth  and  in 
heaven.  With  the  tremulous  and  oscillating  bridge, 
by  them  called  Bifrost,  but  by  man  the  rainbow,  they 
connected  the  terrestrial  and  supernal  worlds.  This 
most  ingenious  and  superb  structure  formed  the  thor- 
oughfare of  the  gods,  while  its  red  stripe,  eradiating 
flames  of  fire,  effectually  prevented  the  frost  and 
mountain-giants  from  ascending  to  heaven.  In  the 
midst  of  Asgard  was  the  place  known  as  Idavollr  — 
the  pleasant  field,  where  the  gods  convened  and 
built  a  palace  for  their  private  convenience,  with 
twelve  thrones  —  the  largest  and  most  magnificent 
edifice  in  the  world,  composed  within  and  without 
of    massive    gold,    and    by    mortals    denominated 


236  THE  HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Gladsheim ;  that  is,  the  home  of  gladness  or  bliss. 
The  other  palace  which  exercised  their  artistic  in- 
genuity and  attested  their  disinterested  benevolence, 
was  intended  for  the  use  of  the  fair  goddesses,  and 
upon  it  men  have  conferred  the  name  of  Vingolf — 
the  abode  of  friends.  Odin,  as  the  supreme  mun- 
dane divinity,  had  his  lofty  throne  in  that  part  of 
Asgard,  recognized  as  Hlidskjaff,  from  which  he 
surveyed  and  perfectly  understood  all  that  trans- 
pired within  the  ample  limits  of  the  universe. 
At  this  epoch  of  their  history,  the  untiring  divini- 
ties began  to  rear  furnaces,  forge  hammers,  tongs, 
and  anvils,  and  to  engage  in  the  manufacture 
of  various  kinds  of  metallic  and  other  wares. 
Gold  they  possessed  in  so  prodigious  a  quan- 
tity, that  all  the  celestial  furniture  of  that  pe- 
riod was  made  of  this  precious  ore;  and  hence  it 
was  emphatically  distinguished  as  the  golden  age. 
In  the  Scandinavian  creed,  coinciding  at  least  in 
this  respect  with  the  existing  faith  of  the  Jew  and 
the  Christian,  the  rainbow  was  symbolical  of  the 
world's  safety.  When  the  black  giants,  the  thun- 
derclouds, threatened  to  take  heaven  by  storm,  and 
the  flashing,  pealing  electric  bolts  had  scattered  and 
hurled  them  to  the  earth,  it  was  displayed  in  all 
its  dazzling  prismatic  splendor,  to  the  anxious  or 
the  admiring  gaze  of  mortals,  as  the  signal  of  vic- 
tory on  the  part  of  the  Aesir  over  the  Ymir  offspring ; 
as  the  pledge  of  the  supremacy  of  the  good  over  the 
evil ;  and  as  the  .sure  promise  of  the  perpetuity  of 
the  universe.  Not  only,  we  may  further  remark, 
did  the  gods  descend  to  the  earth  upon  this  grand 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  237 

irridescent  suspension  bridge,  in  order  to  sojourn  and 
labor  among  mankind,  but  upon  it,  as  rays  once 
darted  from  the  fountain  of  light,  but  now  reflected 
and  reabsorbed,  the  disembodied  souls  of  the  latter 
returned  to  their  celestial  home.  Among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  it  belonged  to  the  functions  of  the  god- 
dess Iris  —  the  messenger  of  Juno,  to  unloose  the 
souls  of  expiring  women  from  the,  chains  of  the  body, 
as  Mercury  unloosed  those  of  the  other  sex.  In  the 
execution  of  this  important  trust,  she,  too,  travelled 
upon  the  resplendent  paths  of  Bifrost,  as  Ovid  says : 

"  On  the  same  bow  she  went  she  soon  returns." — Tookc. 

Asgard,  the  Zion  of  the  Scandinavian  divinities, 
seems  to  be  synonymous  with  the  zodiac;  the 
twelve  thrones  of  the  gods  denoting  that  number  of 
signs  in  the  ecliptic :  the  solitary,  towering  one 
occupied  by  Odin,  implying  planetary  unity.  Be- 
lieving that  the  gods  are  not  only  all-powerful,  but 
also  infinitely  beneficent  beings,  what  is  more  natural 
and  proper  than  that  man  should  feel  it  to  be  a 
pleasure,  as  well  as  deem  it  to  be  his  duty  and  his 
interest,  to  imitate  them  as  far  as  lies  in  his  power  ? 
Accordingly,  the  gods  assembling  together  in  their 
mansions  or  temples  on  high,  and  their  assemblies 
necessarily  being  of  a  solemn,  religious  character, 
their  votaries  upon  the  earth,  patterning  after  the 
zodiacal  churches  of  their  heavenly  patrons,  built 
their  houses  of  worship  on  hills  and  mountains,  or 
in  the  most  elevated  localities  among  human  habita- 
tions.* 

*  Finn  Magnusen,  differino-  from  the  Eddaic  account  on  this 
subject,  predicates  a  Scandinavian  Olympus,  or  a  conical  moun- 


238  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PROVIDENCE  OF  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  GODS. 

From  the  foregoing  delineations  of  the  nature  and 
the  functions  of  the  Scandinavian  deities,  it  is  clear 
that  they  took  a  deep  and  abiding  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  this  world ;  and  that  their  zealous  and 
ingenuous  worshippers  constituted  the  especial  ob- 
jects of  their  parental  care.  To  promote  their 
welfare,  they  assiduously  labored  to  render  external 
nature  propitious  to  their  wants;  and  while  they 
dwelled  in  heaven,  the  prayers  of  their  confiding 
children  ascended  neither  unheard  nor  unanswered 
to  their  celestial  mansions.  How  different,  therefore, 
are  these  considerate  Norse  divinities  from  a  Baal, 
who  stubbornly  refused  to  be  softened  by  the  most 
vehement  and  prolonged  entreaties  of  his  despairing 
priests;*  or  the  listless  god  of  the  Epicurean  phi- 
losophers, who  esteem  the  government  of  the  uni- 
verse as  beneath  the  dignity  of  his  supine  majesty, 

tain  arising  from  the  centre  of  the  earth's  disc,  and  towering  high 
into  ether,  as  the  locality  of  Asgard,  the  city  of  the  Scandinavian 
gods  ;  the  holy  mountain  of  the  Norse  creed. 

*  First  Book  of  Kings,  eighteenth  chapter.  From  the  general 
character  of  Baal,  as  we  find  it  attested  in  history,  the  probability 
is  that  the  limping,  halting  priests  of  this  god,  who,  though  stern 
and  severe,  could  never  justly  be  charged  with  insensibility  to 
the  distress  or  the  wants  of  mortals,  committed  some  flagrant  mis- 
take either  in  the  form  or  the  spirit  of  their  invocations,  on  the 
memorable  occasion  of  their  disgraceful  defeat  and  death  at 
Mount  Carmel, 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  239 

and  man  as  unworthy  or  as  regardless  of  a  divine 
interposition  in  human  affairs.  "  Perhaps,"  says  M. 
Mallet,  in  his  Northern  Antiquities,  translated  by 
Percy,  "  no  religion  ever  attributed  so  much  to  a 
Divine  Providence  as  that  of  the  northern  nations. 
This  doctrine  served  them  for  a  key,  as  commodious 
as  it  was  universal,  to  unlock  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature  without  exception.  The  intelligences  united 
to  different  bodies  penetrated  and  moved  them,  and 
men  needed  not  to  look  any  further  than  to  them,  to 
find  the  cause  of  every  thing  they  observed  in  them. 
Thus  entire  nature,  animated  and  always  moved 
immediately  by  one  or  more  intelligent  causes,  was 
in  their  system  nothing  more  than  the  organ  or  in- 
strument of  the  divinity,  and  became  a  kind  of  book 
in  which  they  thought  they  could  read  his  will,  his 
inclinations,  and  designs.  Hence  that  weakness  for- 
merly common  to  so  many  nations,  and  of  which 
the  traces  still  subsist  in  many  places,  that  makes 
them  regard  a  thousand  indifferent  phenomena,  such 
as  the  quivering  of  leaves,  the  crackling  and  color 
of  flames,  the  fall  of  thunderbolts,  the  flight  or 
singing  of  a  bird,  men's  involuntary  motions,  their 
dreams  and  visions,  the  movements  of  the  pulse, 
etc.,  as  intimations  which  God  gives  to  wise  men, 
of  his  will.  Hence  came  oracles,  divinations,  aus- 
pices, presages,  and  lots ;  in  a  word,  all  that  rub- 
bish of  superstitions  called  at  one  time  religion,  at 
another  magic,  a  science  absurd  to  the  eyes  of  rea- 
son, but  suitable  to  the  impatience  and  restlessness 
of  our  desires,  and  which  only  betrays  the  weakness 
of  human  nature,  in  promising  to  relieve  it.  Such, 
notwithstanding,    was    the    principal    consequence 


240  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

which  the  Teutonic  nations  drew  from  the  doctrine 
of  a  Divine  Providence.* 


*  The  doctrine  advanced  in  this  chapter  is  not  only  an  exem- 
plification of  the  faith  of  a  numerous  people,  in  an  overruling 
Providence,  but.  also  a  striking  confirmation  of  our  theory  of  the 
origin  of  religious  ideas.  It  either  involves  truths  which  are 
comprehended  by  all,  and  -which  therefore  constitute  the  popular 
or  exoteric  part  of  natural  religion ;  or  it  includes  a  more  pro- 
found development  and  a  holier  significance,  recognized  only  by 
priests,  and  sages  —  the  initiated  into  esoteric  religion,  and  is  thus 
the  basis  of  the  sacred  mysteries  and  the  hicroglyphical  symbols 
of  abstract  theological  truths.  In  either  acceptation,  therefore, 
they  are  not  truths  'which  deserve  unqualifiedly  to  be  stigmatized 
as  a  rubbish  of  dark  superstition,  or  a  science  absurd  to  the  eyes  of 
reason,  unless  the  first  modes  of  a  feeble,  infantine  reasoning  on 
the  manifestations  of  God  in  nature,  or  the  incipient  stages  of  a 
religious  philosophy,  can  with  propriety  be  thus  designated. 
There  can  be  no  rubbish,  no  absurdity,  in  the  primitive,  childlike 
faith  or  researches  of  mankind,  unless  we  pervert  the  meaning  of 
words,  or  subvert  the  principles  of  truth,  where  the  materials  for 
a  temple  of  the  Deity  are  gathered  fresh  from  the  storehouse  of 
creation,  though  man  has  not  yet  attained  to  the  artistic  skill  to 
fashion  and  form  them  into  a  symmetrical  and  stately  edifice. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  241 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  YGGDRASILL,  THE  MUNDANE  SNAKE,  THE  WORLD- 
MOUNTAINS,  AND  THE  PILLARS  AND  PYRAMIDS  OF  THE 
WORLD. 

PARAGRAPH  I. 

The  YggdrasilL 

The  ash  Yggdrasill,  or  the  mundane  tree  of  the 
Scandinavians,  is  represented  in  the  Eddas,  the 
Vbluspa,  the  Grimnis-mal,  etc.,  as  the  greatest  and 
best  of  all  trees.  Under  its  gigantic  branches, 
which  wave  in  luxuriant  profusion  over  the  illimita- 
ble creation,  and  extend  even  above  the  ample  limits 
of  heaven,  near  the  Urdar-fountain,  is  the  doomstead 
of  the  gods,  or  the  place  where  in  solemn  conclave 
they  arbitrate  the  fate  of  the  universe.  Thither  they 
repair  every  day  on  horseback,  crossing  Bifrost, 
the  glory-striped  Aesir-bridge.  Thor  alone  goes  on 
foot,  for  fear  of  setting  Bifrost  on  fire  with  his 
thunder-car,  and  besides  rendering  boiling  hot  the 
Urdar-waters.  This  enormous  tree  stands  over  the 
renowned  and  sacred  Urdar-fountain,  and  nourishes 
in  perennial  bloom  and  verdure.  Three  prodigious 
roots,  widely  separated,  and  embracing  in  their  ex- 
tensive ramifications  the  vast  empire  of  creation, 
firmly  fix  it  in  its  place.  According  to  one  account 
of  the  Yggdrasill  myth,  Hela  dwells  under  one  of 
them;  the  frost  and  mountain-giants,  under  the 
other ;  and  mankind  under  the  third.     Another  ver- 

21 


242  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

sion  of  the  legend  extends  one  of  the  massive  roots 
to  the  habitation  of  Aesir,  or  to  heaven,  and  to  it 
assigns  the  Urdar-fountain  exclusively.  It  must 
therefore  reach  above  Asgard,  as  the  gods  daily  ride 
vp  to  it.  The  next  is  made  to  terminate  among  the 
giants  already  mentioned,  and  in  the  very  place  for- 
merly occupied  by  Ginnunga-gap.  Under  this  root 
is  situated  Mimir's  celebrated  well,  in  which  wit  and 
wisdom  lie  hidden  :  it  is  thus  named  from  its  owner, 
who  became  distinguished  for  his  sapient  qualities, 
in  consequence  of  drinking  every  morning  of  the 
water  of  his  well  from  the  horn  Gjoll.  One  day 
Odin  the  Alfadir  came  and  begged  a  draught  of 
this  marvellous  water  ;  he  readily  obtained  it,  but  in 
lieu  of  it  he  was  obliged  to  leave  one  of  his  eyes  as 
a  pledge.  The  third,  under  which  is  the  spring 
Hvergelmir,  and  which  is  constantly  gnawed  by 
the  Nidhogg,  strikes  its  innumerable  fibres  into 
Niflheim.*     On  the  top  of  the  tree  thus  poised  in 

*  The  mythologies  of  other  nations  also  claim  and  celebrate 
their  mundane  trees,  and  it  is  exceedingly  probable  that  the 
Scandinavian  Yggdrasill  "was  once  the  thrifty  scion  of  one  of 
these  ancient  trunks.  That  of  the  Thibetans  is  called  Zampuh, 
and  grows  on  the  south  side  of  the  world-mountain  denominated 
Riron.  Its  roots  extend  towards  the  east,  and  its  branches  reach 
so  far  into  the  west  that  they  encroach  upon  the  north,  and  even 
touch  the  very  apex  of  the  mountain.  In  short,  they  embrace 
the  whole  world.  Aswatha  distin£cuishes  the  name  of  the  mun- 
dane  tree  of  the  Hindoos.  Its  branches,  according  to  Kanne's 
Pantheum  der  Aeltesten  PhilosopJiie,  etc.,  are  called  the  limbs  or 
organs  —  the  constituent  parts  of  the  visible  or  sensual  world ; 
and  its  leaves  are  denotive  of  the  Yedas,  which  asain  are  the 
symbols  of  the  universe  in  its  intellectual  character.  Of  the 
Aswatha  and  the  Persian  Gogard  we  shall  presently  speak  more 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  243 

the    centre    of  the    universe,   is    perched   an    eagle, 
famed  no  less  than  Mimir  himself,  for  its  superior 


at  large.     What,  it  is  natural  to  ask,  gave  rise  to  these  myths  of 
the  world-trees  ?     Are  they  the  playful  productions  of  the  fertile 
fancies  of  the  poets  ?  or  have  they  a  basis  in  reality  ?     Who  is 
able  to  penetrate  through  the  grey  mist  of  ages,  and,  laying  bare 
the  root  of  the  first  Yggdrasill,  say,  Here  is  the  beginning  of  the 
world-tree  myths  ?    The  following  curious  facts  in  natural  history, 
taken  from  Moore's  Rural  New  Yorker,  for  January  and  February 
of  the  current  year,  favor  the  idea  of  existent  realities  as  their 
prototypes.     They  relate  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  comprise 
two  of  the  most  remarkable   trees  known  to  phytonic   science. 
The  Rain-tree  first  demands  our  attention.    "  The  island  of  Fierro 
is  one  of  the  most  considerable  of  the  Canaries,  and  I  conceive 
that  name  to  be  given  it  upon  this  account,  that  its  soil  not  af- 
fording so  much  as  a  drop  of  fresh  water,  seems  to  be  of  iron ; 
and  indeed,  there  is  in  this  island,  neither  river  nor  rivulet,  nor 
well  nor  spring,  save  that  only  towards  the  seaside  there  are  some 
wells ;  but  they  lie  at  such  a  distance  from  the  city,  that  the  inhab- 
itants can  make  no  more  use  of  them.     But  the  great  Preserver 
and  Sustainer  of  all,  remedies  this  inconvenience  by  a  way  so  ex- 
traordinary, that  man  will  be  forced  to  sit  down  and  acknowledge 
that  he  gives  in  this  an  undeniable  demonstration  of  his  goodness 
and  infinite  providence.     For,  in  the  midst,  there  is  a  tree  which 
is  the  only  one  of  the  kind,  inasmuch  as  it  hath  no  resemblance 
to  those  mentioned  by  us  in  this  relation,  nor  to  any  other  known 
to  us   in  Europe.     The  leaves  of  it  are  long  and  narrow,  and 
continue   in   a   constant  verdure,  winter   and  summer:   and  its 
branches  are  covered  with  a  cloud  which  is  never  dispelled,  but 
resolved  into  a  moisture,  causes  to  fall  from  its  leaves  a  very  clear 
water,  and  that  in  such  abundance  that  the  cisterns,  which  are 
placed  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  to  receive  it,  are  never  empty,  but 
contain  enough  to  supply  both  man  and  beast."     Who  does  not 
perceive  a  striking  resemblance  between  the  copious  aqueous  de- 
positions of  the  Bain-tree,  and  the  Urdar-fountain  of  the  Yggdra- 
sill ?  —  The  marvellous  Kounboum  next  passes  in  review  before 
us,  and  is  thus  described :  "  M.  Hue,  in  his  '  Travels  in  Tartary 


244  THE   HEATHEX   RELIGION 

sapience.  Between  its  lustrous  eyes,  sits  the  hawk 
Vedurfblnir.  The  squirrel  Ratolsk  —  insolent  little 
beast!  runs  up  and  down  the  immortal  ash,  and 
seeks  to  cause  strife  between  the  bird  of  heaven  and 
Nidh'ogg,  the  huge  mundane  snake,  and  the  envious 
gnawer  at  the  Yggdrasill-root ;  with  which,  it  is  as- 
serted, so  multitudinous  a  host  of  the  ophidian  race 
is  associated,  that  no  tongue  can  recount  it.  Four 
harts  bound  across  the  spreading  branches  of  this 
noble  tree,  browsing  on  its  buds  and  leaves.  Near 
the  Urdar-fountain,  is  located  a  very  beautiful 
dwelling,  inhabited  by  three  maidens,  named  Urd, 
Verdandi,  and  Skuld  —  the  present,  the  past,  and 
the  future  :  they  fix  the  term  of  numan  life,  and  are 


and  Thibet/  found  many  wonders ;  among  them,  a  singular  tree 
called  Kounboum,  or  Tree  of  Ten  Thousand  Images,  growing 
not  far  from  one  of  the  principal  Buddhist  temples  in  the  latter 
country.  The  marvel  of  it  is,  that  there  are  upon  each  of  these 
leaves  well-formed  Thibetan  characters,"  all  of  a  green  color, 
some  darker,  some  lighter  than  the  leaf  itself.  The  characters 
are  portions  of  the  leaf  itself,  and  are  also  found  upon  the  bark  of 
the  trunk  and  branches.  In  removing  a  part  of  the  old  bark,  the 
indistinct  outlines  of  characters  were  seen  on  the  new  bark  under 
it,  but  different  from  those  removed.  The  tree  is  of  great  age 
and  size,  and  the  Lamas  informed  M.  Hue  that  it  was  the  only 
one  of  the  kind  in  existence,  and  that  all  efforts  to  propagate  it 
by  seeds  and  cuttings  had  failed.  Our  traveller  made  a  most 
minute  examination,  and  became  convinced  that  there  was  no 
trickery  in  the  case."  —  This  is  the  Thibetan  Tree  of  Knowledge. 
Koun  is  derived  from  the  Hindoo  kanna,  the  eye ;  hence  kiena, 
knowledge  —  scientia,  in  Latin,  and  keruier,  in  German.  I  will 
only  add,  that,  according  to  Blackwell,  the  May-pole  and  the 
German  Christbaum,  have  a  pagan  origin,  the  type  of  both  being 
the  ash  Yggdrasill. 

CO 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  245 

called  Norns,  Parcae  or  fates.*  Every  day  they  draw 
water  from  the  Urdar-fountain,  and  with  it  and  the 
clay  which  lies  around  it,  sprinkle  the  ash,  that  its 
branches  may  not  rot  and  wither  away.  The  water 
of  this  fountain  is  so  exceedingly  pure  and  holy, 
that  any  thing  which  is  immersed  in  it,  becomes  as 
white  as  the  membraneous  tissue  which  lines  the 
inside  of  an  egg-shell.  The  exhalations  of  the  ash 
thus  sprinkled,  condense  and  fall  to  the  earth,  when 
men  call  them  honey-dew,  and  it  is  the  food  of 
bees.  Two  snow-white  swans  are  nourished  from 
the  Urdar-waters,  and  they  claim  the  parentage  of 
all  birds  bearing  their  name.  This  intricate  and 
ingenious  arborial  structure,  together  with  its  various 
and  interesting  appurtenances,  merits  the  attempts 
at  least  of  a  critical  and  careful  elucidation,  the 
result  of  which  is  accordingly  here  laid  before  the 
reader.  As  Ymir  represents  the  inert  material 
world,  so  the  Yggdrasill  is  doubtless  to  be  regarded 
as  the  symbol  of  organic  existence,  in  all  its  diver- 


*  There  are  many  Norns  beside  the  three  enumerated  in  the 
text.  Some  are  said  to  belong  to  the  Aesir,  and  others,  to  the 
races  of  the  elves  and  the  dwarfs.  Those  are  of  a  heavenly,  these, 
of  an  earthly  origin.  Good  Norns  dispense  good,  evil  Norns,  evil 
destinies.  The  elves  are  the  males,  and  the  Valkyr-jor  —  choosers 
of  the  slain,  created  by  Odin  after  his  draught  from  Mimir's  well 
had  endowed  him  with  the  mysteries  of  magic,  —  the  females  of 
the  same  sprightly  family  of  genii.  The  elves  of  the  air  are  the 
elves  of  lio-ht ;  those  of  the  water  —  die  Nixen :  naiads,  the  elves 
of  darkness,  or  the  Davkalfar.  As  to  the  dwarfs,  they  were  bred 
in  Ymir's  body,  and  were  at  first  only  maggots,  but  by  the  will  of 
the  gods,  they  at  last  assumed  the  form  and  understanding  of 
man :  they  always  dwell  in  rocks  and  caverns. 

21* 


246  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

sified  phases  of  development.  Its  three  roots  can 
mean  nothing  but  the  physical,  the  intellectual,  and 
the  moral  elements  of  being.  The  basis  of  man's  as 
well  as  the  world's  creation,  being  water,  the  swan 
typifies  the  infant  soul  or  being  still  swimming  upon 
the  water ;  and  its  white  plumage  denotes  the  inno- 
cence and  purity  of  new-born  man.  White,  too, 
is  typical  of  the  wintry  Niflheim  —  the  cosmical 
womb  containing  the  prima  materia  of  Ginnunga- 
gap.  The  Hindoo  Brahma  —  the  creator  of  the 
world,  is  represented  as  sitting  upon  a  swimming 
swan,  thus  symbolizing  the  origin  of  creation.*  The 
transforming  virtue  of  the  Urdar-water,  converting 
every  thing  with  which  it  comes  in  contact  into  the 
purest  white,  implies  the  good  and  the  beautiful  in 
mundane  existence.  The  matured  mind  is  repre- 
sented by  the  eagle,  while  the  hawk  typifies  internal 
sensation.  In  the  East,  the  north  is  called  the  top  or 
zenith,  and  hence  by  its  position  on  the  top  of  the 
ash  —  the  north  pole  of  the  world,  the  eagle,  consid- 
ered in  its  macrocosmic  import,  denotes,  no  doubt, 
the  north.  Njord  resides  in  Noatun  —  the  night  or 
the  north,  and  one  of  his  symbols  is  the  feathery 
integument  of  the  eagle.f  The  serpent  Nidhbgg  is 
the   emblem    of  night   in   its   primitive   import:    it 


♦According  to  an  Egyptian  myth,  the  floating  isle  of  Chemmis, 
called  into  existence  by  Apollo,  sprang  genetically  from  the  egg  of 
the  mundane  swan. 

f  The  eagle  inhabits  the  north,  and  clothed  in  its  plumage,  the 
god  Njord  sometimes  indulges  in  works  of  volitation,  creating  a 
wind  which  is  called  the  eagle-wind  —  aquilo,  or  the  north- wind  ; 
and  in  the  language  of  the  Greenlanders,  the  eagle  is  denomi- 
nated the  bird  of  night:  literally  the  night-like  bird.  —  Kanne. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  247 

gnaws  at  the  root  of  the  ash  in'Hvergelmir.  Night 
is  Nichts  —  nothing  ;  that  is,  a  negation,  yet  an  evil 
striving  to  annihilate  its  antithesis.  In  its  ethical 
import,  Nidhcigg,  composed  of  Nid,  which  is  synony- 
mous with  the  German  Neid  or  envy,  and  hoggr,  to 
hew  or  gnaw,  signifying  the  envious  gnawer,  in- 
volves the  idea  of  all  moral  evil,  typified  as  the 
destroyer  of  the  root  of  the  tree  of  life.  In  their 
moral  significance,  the  harts  may  be  considered  as 
expressive  of  the  restless  and  troubled  passions  of 
the  mind  feeding  upon  the  green  leaves  —  the 
healthy  thoughts  of  the  soul;  in  their  mundane 
relation,  as  the  corroding  tooth  of  time.  The 
squirrel,  running  between  the  king  of  birds  and  the 
hideous  world-snake,  illustrates  the  alternate  influ- 
ence which  the  animal  and  the  intellectual  faculties 
exercise  over  each  other.  In  its  more  extensive 
import,  it  may  be  viewed  as  expressive  of  an  equa- 
tion of  good  and  evil  in  the  universe.  As  the  gene- 
sis of  existence  is  in  water,  so  wisdom  originates  by 
imbibition,  and  even  Odin  obtains  the  precious  gift 
in  this  way ;  but  he  is  obliged  to  pledge  one  of  his 
eyes  for  a  draught  from  Mimir's  well  —  a  singular 
exchange  which,  according  to  some  interpreters  of 
mythic  lore,  means  that  Odin  is  the  sun  whose 
image  is  reflected  in  the  water.  Cosmically  applied, 
the  pledge  of  the  god  may  be  understood  as  symbol- 
ical of  his  creative  power  —  the  reflection  of  his 
divine  attributes,  and  its  recognition  as  a  reality  dis- 
tinct from  himself —  the  world ;  yet  a  reality  evolved 
or  born  out  of  him,  and  existing  only  through  him.* 

*  Odin  drinks  Mimir's  water  from  the  fulgid  horn  Gjoll ;  that  is, 


248  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

In  oriental  myths,  the  sun  and  moon  are  called  the 
two  eyes  of  the  world.  The  former,  as  the  generative 
primeval  light  —  the  eye  in  the  water  ;  the  latter,  as 
the  ray-embraced,  impregnated  eye,  reflecting  the 
solar  light.  To  understand  this  theory  clearly,  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind,  that  in  the  ancient  sys- 
tems of  cosmogony,  the  sun  represents  all  the  ac- 
tive or  more  powerful  forces  in  nature,  especially 
light  and  heat,  and  the  moon,  all  the  passive  or 
more  feeble  principles  and  elementary  combinations 
in  the  universe,  especially  night  and  cold,  the  earth 
and  the  water.  Proserpine  is  not  only  Helena  or  the 
moon,  but  also  Demeter,  the  earth,  and  by  descending 
still  lower  in  her  evolutions,  she  figures  as  the  som- 
bre queen  of  hell,  or  of  Hades.  In  her  lunarian  ca- 
pacity, she  is  moreover  the  mother  of  night  and 
thaw.  In  short,  the  sun  is  the  south  pole,  the  Mus- 
pellheim,  and  the  moon  the  north  pole,  the  nebulous, 
dark,  cold  Niflheim  of  the  world.  When  Narcissus 
saw  his  image  reflected  in  a  fountain,  it  is  said  he 
became  enamoured  with  it,  and  was  changed  into  the 
flower  which  bears  his  name;  that  is,  he,  the  pure 
celestial  spirit,  derived,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  Platonic  philosophers,  from  the  empyrean 
spheres,  descended  to  the  earth,  or  became  incar- 
nated mind,  mixed  with  matter ;  which  is  the  same 


intelligence  united  to  sound,  becomes  the  creative  word  :  lie  leaves 
an  eye.  As  long  as  both  his  eyes  were  closed,  he  had  both ;  when 
they  were  opened,  and  he  looked  into  the  fountain  of  life  —  the 
prolific  and  regenerative  source  from  which  he  again  revived 
dead  nature,  he  parted  with  creative  power :  the  world  lost  an 
eye,  a  portion  of  divine  energy. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  249 

as  to  say  that  the  Supreme  Mind  revealed  himself 
as  an  individual  intelligence,  and  became  an  evolu- 
tionary part  of  creation.  As  to  the  gods  sitting 
daily  in  judgment  under  the  Yggdrasill,  it  can 
scarcely  mean  any  thing  else  but  that  they  exercise 
a  vigilant  and  rigorous  providence  over  the  world, 
or  execute  the  laws  upon  which  are  based  the  integ- 
rity and  perpetuity  of  the  universe.  The  bees  and 
the  honey-dew  yet  remain  to  be  considered.  With 
the  bee,  whose  food  is  ordinarily  the  nectar  of 
flowers,  the  idea  of  a  primeval,  pure,  and  innocent 
diet,  such  as  may  be  supposed  to  have  distinguished 
the  patriarchal  state  of  the  world,  is  connected.  On 
honey,  the  fertile  fancy  of  the  heathens  presumed 
the  progenitors  of  the  human  race  to  have  subsisted, 
while  they  continued  in  a  paradisian  state  of  sinless 
purity ;  were  animated  by  holy  and  heavenly  aspira- 
tions ;  and  practised  the  loftiest  yet  the  most  child- 
like devotion  :  the  young  bee  in  its  larva-innocence, 
likewise  feeds  upon  ambrosia,  or  the  pollen  of 
flowers.  The  nymph  Melissa  has  the  honor  to  have 
introduced  this  luscious  production  into  the  world ; 
and  some  of  the  most  ancient  priestesses,  the  Mi- 
lissas,  bearing  the  same  name  as  the  bees,  deserve 
the  praise  of  having  first  called  the  attention  of  the 
nations  to  the  cultivation  of  grain,  the  first,  and,  it 
was  believed,  also  the  best  kind  of  agrarian  food  for 
man.  Plain,  wholesome  diet ;  a  simple,  genial  devo- 
tion ;  and  a  stainless  moral  purity,  are  therefore  the 
dominant  ideas  which  are  symbolized  by  this  mel- 
liferous insect,  distinguished  at  once  for  its  cleanly 
and  industrious  habits,  its  economical  utility,  and 
its   strict   and   admirable    system   of    social   polity. 


250  THE   HEATHEN  RELIGION 

Though  often  sallying  forth  from  its  hive  to  revel  in 
the  breeze,  and  feast  upon  the  gifts  of  Flora,  the 
bee  loves  its  home,  and  fails  not  to  return  to  it ;  and 
for  this  reason,  the  ancients  considered  it  to  be  a  fit 
emblem  of  the  soul,  which,  descending  to  the  earth 
from  the  mansions  of  the  gods,  at  the  period  of 
childbirth,  keeps  itself  prepared  by  the  observance 
of  a  pious  and  holy  life,  soon  to  return  to  a  higher 
sphere  of  being  —  its  pristine  abode.  In  this  higher 
relation,  the  bee  is  hieroglyphic-ally  associated  with 
Proserpine  the  pure :  the  conductress  of  the  souls 
into  and  out  of  the  body.  It  was  also  the  acknowl- 
edged type  of  the  nourishing  and  fostering  maternal 
goddesses  —  the  Ephesian  Artemis,  or  Diana,  and 
Ceres,  and  wont  to  figure  as  one  of  their  chief  hiero- 
glyphical  insignia.  The  honey-dew.  the  food  of  the 
busy  Yggdrasill-bees,  falls  in  the  night  under  a  re- 
duced temperature,  when  the  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  humidity,  and,  as  far  as  the  passive  principle 
of  creation  is  concerned,  it  therefore  typifies  the 
creation  of  the  world  out  of  water,  at  that  nascent 
period  of  time  when  gelid  vapors  and  thick  darkness 
lay  brooding  over  the  fluid  mass.  The  bees  feeding 
upon  it,  is  denotive  of  the  active  principle  of  crea- 
tion—  the  luminous,  torrid  rays  streaming  forth 
from  the  empyrean  Muspellheim,  which,  impinging 
upon  the  waters  in  Ginnunga-gap,  begat  the  primal 
fruit  and  incipient  forms  of  the  infant  world. 
Finally,  of  honey  is  prepared  the  food  of  the  gods, 
and  as  honey,  in  the  Scandinavian  myth,  is  derived 
from  the  copious  dew  of  the  mundane  ash ;  and 
again,  as  the  Yggdrasill-dew  is  symbolical  of  the 
passive,  cosmic  principle,  or  the  prima  materia  of  the 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  251 

world,  the  eating  of  the  honey  on  the  part  of  the 
gods,  implies  that  they  are  the  active  powers  in  na- 
ture —  the  celestial  architects  and  controllers  of  the 
universe. 

PARAGRAPH  II. 

The  Yggdrasill  and  Nidhogg  illustrated  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
Grecian  and  Oriental  mythologies  of  the  mundane  tree,  the  mun- 
dane snake,  together  with  an  investigation  of  the  icorld-mountains, 
and  the  pillars  and  pyramids  of  the  world. 

According  to  the  Hindoo  mythology,  the  universe 
is  portrayed  under  the  form  of  a  tree,  called  Aswa- 
tha,  or  Asvatha,  the  position  of  which  is  reversed,  the 
branches  extending  downwards  and  the  root  up- 
wards; the  latter  assuming  this  direction,  because  in 
the  dark  region  of  the  north  pole  is  the  root  or  origin 
of  all  creation;  and  the  former  that,  because  they 
typify  all  the  numerous  objects  of  sense  in  the  ex- 
ternal world  —  the  members  and  organs  of  the 
cosmical  body.  In  other  words,  the  root  symbolizes 
the  genesis  of  the  world  in  God,  while  the  branches 
are  denotive  of  the  creative  energy  of  the  Deity 
realized  in  the  production  of  the  universe.  This 
energy  begins  its  revelation  above  in  a  point,  and 
ends  below  in  multitudinous  ramifications.  Man, 
too,  as  a  constituent  part  of  creation,  has  his  origin 
in  a  tree,  called,  in  the  cosmogonic  myth  of  the  Per- 
sians, the  Gog-ard,  or  tree  of  life,  inasmuch  as  the 
first  pair  of  our  race,  Meshia  and  Meshiane,  while 
vet  inclosed  in  it,  were  still  in  God  and  in  a  state 
of  innocence ;  but  Riva  or  Ribas  —  separation  or 
strife,    alluding    to    man's    hypostatical    or   distinct 


252  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

individual  existence :  any  thing  out  of  God  is  of 
course  a  separation,  and  created  intelligences,  such 
as  the  original  man  and  woman,  are  not  in  unity 
but  in  antagonism  with  God.  It  is  further  to 
be  observed,  that  the  myth  under  consideration 
supposes  the  prototypes  of  our  race  while  inclosed 
in  the  microcosmic  tree,  to  have  been  but  one  indi- 
vidual, and  to  have  existed  in  an  androgynal  state.* 
This  dogma  is  to  be  understood  thus  :  man  began 
his  existence  as  the  Divine  intelligence ;  for  there  is 
but  one  Spirit,  however  many  spiritual  gifts  there 
may  be,  and  God  knowing  or  recognizing  himself  in 
contemplating  the  woman  —  material  existence  in 
its  unformed  state ;  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  the 
passive  principles  and  elements  of  creation,  is  God- 
man  or  male  humanity,  and  as  long  as  this  recogni- 
tion or  scions  of  himself  does  not  become  a  hypos- 
tasis, or  an  individual  distinct  from  himself,  but 
continues  to  remain  in  him,  the  man  and  woman 
are  in  a  stale  of  androgynal  union.  As  soon,  how- 
ever, as  it  assumes  form  and  being  out  of  God, 
there  is  a  male  and  female  humanity  in  a  separate 
state  of  individuality :  the  division  line  between  the 


*  Upon  the  authority  of  the  Bundehesh,  Kanne  states  that  this 
tree  resembled  two  human  bodies  placed  in  juxtaposition,  one 
introducing  a  hand  into  the  ear  of  the  other,  while  both  were  so 
intimately  united  that  they  seemed  to  constitute  but  one  body, 
etc.  It  is  evident  that  the  hand  here  is  intended  as  the  symbol 
of  generation.  Numerous  instances  might  be  quoted  in  proof  of 
this  fact,  one,  however,  will  suffice  on  this  occasion.  A  Nepaulese 
branch  of  the  huge  Hindoo  mythological  tree,  relates  that  the  will 
of  God,  appearing  in  the  form  of  a  woman,  created  Brahma, 
Vichnu,  and  Siva,  by  simply  striking  her  hands  together  ! 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  253 

Creator  and  the  creature  stands  out  in  bold  relief. 
When,  as  it  is  related  in  the  mythic  records  of  the 
Greeks,  Bacchus  saw  his  image,  nature  was  realized : 
the  world  in  the  god  became  the  world  out  of  the 
god!  In  order  to  produce  the  universe,  Brahma, 
the  Hindoo  creator  of  the  world,  assumed  the  her- 
maphrodite form ;  that  is,  he  revealed  himself  at 
once  in  the  unity  of  the  active  and  passive  attri- 
butes of  creation.  According  to  the  Persians,  the 
root  of  the  tree  of  life  was  gnawed,  not  by  a  noxious 
serpent,  but  by  a  venomous  toad ;  but  the  cosmogony 
of  the  philosopher  Pherecydes  informs  us  again  that 
a  snake  was  lodged  among  the  branches  of  the  oak, 
deemed  sacred  as  the  Gogard,  or  tree  of  life,  among 
the  Hellenic  people.  In  the  ancient  mythologies  of 
the  East,  the  snake  appears  at  once  as  a  good  and 
an  evil  being  —  as  agathodaimon  and  kakothodaimon. 
In  the  beginning  —  thus  proceeds  the  cosmogonic 
myth  —  were  water  and  the  prolific  slime  ilus,  ale, 
from  which  crept  forth  the  mundane  snake.  This 
protogonos-being  was  furnished  with  the  heads  of  a 
ram,  a  bull  —  taurus,  and  a  lion  ;  had  wings  at  the 
sides;  and  bore  the  physiognomy  of  the  god  Phanes 
—  the  apparent  or  revealed.  The  heads  of  the  three 
quadrupeds,  as  distinctive  traits  of  this  snake,  refer 
to  the  zodiac,  while  the  snake  itself  is  the  symbol 
of  Cneph,  the  hidden  deity,  revealed  in  time  within 
the  great,  living  ring  of  the  snake,  and  hence  distin- 
guished as  Phanes.  The  mundane  snake  unrolls 
itself  as  the  mundane  year;  as  the  year  revolving 
within  the  zodiacal  signs  of  Aries,  Taurus,  Leo,  etc. 
Time   thus    unfolding    itself,    is    measured   in    the 

ecliptic  as  days,  years,  eras,  etc.     Besides,  time  has 

22 


254  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

wings,  and  hence  the  world-snake  is  represented 
winged.  The  central  face  of  the  snake,  reflecting 
the  image  of  the  Deity,  is  emblematical  of  the  fact 
that  God  is  the  centre  of  creation  and  of  providence. 
The  head  of  the  bull,  as  a  component  part  of  the 
world-snake,  is  expressive  of  profound  significance. 
In  primeval  time,  the  year  commenced  when  the 
vernal  equinox  was  in  Taurus,  and  hence  the  bull, 
or  the  ox  in  its  generic  acceptation,  is  represented  as 
rising  up  out  of  the  abyss  —  the  Ginnunga-gap  of 
creation :  he  stands  at  the  roseate  dawn  of  time, 
and  years  and  months  are  called  oxen  —  bous,  boes, 
or  boves*  Hence  at  Memphis,  in  the  area  of 
the  temple,  devoted  to  Phthas  the  creator,  the  bull 
appears  as  the  type  of  the  Eternal,  and  as  such  he 
is  the  consecrated  medium  of  Divine  worship.  The 
snake,  encircling  the  urn,  or  water-vase,  agreeably  to 
the  Egyptian  mythology,  is  Cneph,  the  good  spirit, 
hovering  over  the  waters.  As  agathodaimon,  the 
snake  is  also  the  emblem  of  health  and  the  healing 


*  According  to  ftie  doctrine  of  the  early  Persian  or  Iranite 
Ma  si,  the  first  living  beins;  was  the  ox  Abudad,  which  was  slain 
by  Ahrirnan ;  but  Orniuzd  formed  from  its  body  the  different 
species  of  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes,  trees,  plants,  etc.  When  the 
ox  expired,  a  being  called  Kajomorz  sprang  from  its  right  leg. 
Kajomorz  was  killed  by  the  Devs,  but  after  the  elementary  parti- 
cles that  entered  into  the  composition  of  his  body  had  been  puri- 
.fied  in  the  light  of  the  sun  during  forty  years,  they  became  the 
germ  of  the  Ribas  tree,  out  of  which  Ormuzd  made  the  first  man 
and  woman,  Meshia  and  Meshiane,  infusing  into  them  the  breath 
of  life  and  spirituality.  He  thus  completed  the  work  of  creation 
in  six  periods,  holding  at  the  end  of  each  the  festival  Gahanbar. 
—  Blackwell. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  255 

art,  and  of  immortality  or  a  life  to  come.*  On  the 
contrary,  the  snake  considered  as  the  symbol  or  per- 
sonification of  Ahriman,  Typhon,  etc.,  is  the  evil 
snake  —  the  dragon.  In  the  great  temple  of  Edfu, 
supposed  by  Jomard  and  his  fellow  savans  to  have 
been  built  during  the  period  of  time,  when  the  sum- 
mer solstice  took  place  in  the  sign  of  Leo,  appears  a 
lion  with  the  head  of  a  hawk  —  the  symbol  of  the 
culminating  power  of  the  sun,  which  has  seized  in 
its  claws  a  coiled  snake,  the  emblem  of  the  noxious 
influences  which  succeed  the  recession  of  the  king' 
of  day  from  the  northern  hemisphere.  The  snake, 
viewed  in  its  malignant  attributes,  is  the  type  of 
moral  and  physical  evil  generally,  and  as  such,  its 
effect  upon  the  world  is  analogous  to  that  of  Ty- 
phonism,  revealing  itself  in  the  subtile  poison  which 


*  The  good  snake  encircles  the  image  of  the  sanital  goddess 
Minerva,  and  is  the  symbol  both  of  the  earth  and  of  the  goddess, 
in  as  far  as  she  controls  the  spirit  of  mother-earth,  and  purifies  and 
ameliorates  it  agrarianhj  and  medicinally.  In  Egypt,  the  cup  of 
health,  dispensed  by  Serapis,  Osiris,  and  Isis,  was  entwined  by 
serpents :  thus  ornamented,  it  was  probably  one  of  the  oldest 
hieroglyphical  symbols  of  these  divinities.  In  the  country  of  the 
Pharaohs  and  of  the  Pyramids,  snakes  were  kept  in  the  temples ; 
fed  upon  honey  cakes ;  and  venerated  as  the  living  representa- 
tives of  the  Hygienic  gods.  Sickler  is  of  opinion  that  a  healing 
virtue  was  attributed  to  snakes,  in  consequence  of  these  reptiles 
affecting  the  localities  of  thermo-niediciiml  springs.  Found  in 
proximity  to  such  waters,  they  must,  he  further  presumes,  have 
appeared  in  the  eyes  of  primitive  man  as  the  warders  of  the  Hy- 
gienic fountains,  and  the  unerring  guides  to  health  and  lonoevitv. 
Discoveries  such  as  these,  naturally  led  to  the  choice  of  the 
snake  as  an  appropriate  symbol  of  health ;  of  rejuvenated  life ; 
and  of  the  iEsculapian  profession. 


256  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

it  infuses  into  the  vital  juices  of  the  vast  and  majes- 
tic mundane  tree.  According  to  mythic  account, 
Erisichthon,  the  son  of  Triops  the  Thessalian,  was 
doomed  to  suffer  a  most  severe  and  protracted  pun- 
ishment through  the  instrumentality  of  a  snake. 

The  following  facts  will  acquaint  us  with  the  de- 
tails of  this  tragic  affair.  Our  hero  is  a  mythic  per- 
sonage, of  allegorical  import,  and  signifies  the  sun  in 
its  greatest  semiannual  potency  and  splendor,  when 
its  scorching  rays  burn  and  consume  the  produc- 
tions of  the  vegetable  kingdom:  a  fact  which  is 
metaphorically  expressed  by  stating  that  Erisich- 
thon derided  Ceres  —  the  earth,  and  cut  down  her 
sacred  grove.  This  solar  phthisis  is  also  personified 
under  the  appellation  of  Aethon  —  the  consuming: 
an  epithet  applied  with  much  force  to  Erisichthon 
or  the  sun  at  this  season  of  the  year,  especially  in  a 
country  like  Egypt.  Such,  we  are  told,  was  the 
consuming,  destroying  propensity  of  the  fiery  sun- 
god,  that  if  the  mundane  snake  had  not  seasonably 
interfered,  and  infolded  him  within  its  constrictive 
coils,  thus  restraining  him,  he  would  have  committed 
a  suicidal  self-destruction.  The  culprit  Erisichthon, 
thus  entwined  by  the  puissant  snake,  which  acted  in 
this  instance  as  the  executioner  of  the  vengeance  of 
Ceres,  is  condemned  by  the  offended  goddess  to  take 
up  his  abode  among  the  constellations,  and  there 
to  exhibit  himself  before  the  gaze  of  the  world  as 
the  Ophiuchus  or  snake-holder ',  and  as  a  dread 
beacon  of  warning  to  all  future  ages,  of  the  clire 
consequences  of  insulting  her  person  or  infringing 
her  rights.  When  it  is  asserted  that  Erisichthon 
would  have  devoured  himself  in  case  the  snake  had 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  257 

not  interposed  its  punitive  yet  saving  agency,  the 
meaning  is,  that  the  sun  would  eventually  have 
burned  up  every  thing  upon  the  earth,  and  thus 
annihilated  its  own  effective  power.*  Finally,  after 
the  autumnal  equinox,  this  fiercely  glowing  god,  or 
the  summer  sun,  approaches  gradually  towards  the 
winter  solstice ;  it  loses  its  accustomed  influence 
more  and  more ;  night  encroaches  upon  day ;  wet 
succeeds  drought ;  and  stern,  tempestuous  winter 
sways  his  ominous  sceptre  over  the  ruins  of  a  once 
powerful  and  splendid  empire.  These  physical 
changes  in  the  laws  and  phenomena  of  the  plane- 
tary system,  whose  centre  is  the  sun,  are  personated 
by  the  autumnal  snake ;  the  evil  snake ;  the  snake 
of  the  curse,  constricting  and  subduing  Erisichthon. 
It  may  still  be  asked,  How  can  this  snake  be  defined 
as  evil,  when  it  has  evidently  accomplished  a  good  ? 
To  understand  this  apparent  contradiction,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  good  in  its  extreme  is  evil, 
and  that  therefore  the  ophidian  vanquisher  of  Eri- 
sichthon is  a  curse  in  view  of  the  long  absence  of 
the  light  and  heat  of  summer  during  the  winter 
season.  It  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  remark, 
that  instead  of  an  entire  grove,  some  authors  make 
mention  only  of  a  famous  poplar  or  oak,  the  daring 
destruction  of  which  marked  the  extent  of  Erisich- 
thon's  impious  outrage  against  Ceres  ;  and  it  is  over 


*In  performing  this  act  of  justice  in  behalf  of  Ceres,  the 
snake  is  the  good  snake,  but  in  sparing  the  life  of  Erisichthon,  it 
is  at  once  the  good  and  the  evil  snake :  the  evil  snake  as  it  re- 
gards the  preservation  of  the  evil-doer ;  the  good  snake,  as  it 
respects  the  preservation  of  the  world  in  its  solar  integrity. 

22* 


258  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  ample  dimension  of  the  violated,  thrice  sacred 
oak  of  the  goddess,  that  Ovid  thus  pours  out  his 
unrestrained,  prolific  effusions  :  — 

"  An  ancient  oak  in  the  dark  centre  stood, 
The  covert's  glory,  and  itself  a  wood : 
Garlands  embraced  its  shaft,  and  from  the  boughs 
Hung  tablets,  monuments  of  prosperous  vows. 
In  the  cool  dusk  its  unpierced  verdure  spread, 
The  dryads  oft  their  hallowed  dances  led ; 
And  oft,  when  round  their  guaging  arms  they  cast, 
Full  fifteen  ells  it  measured  in  the  waist : 
Its  height  all  under-standards  did  surpass, 
As  they  aspired  above  the  humbler  grass. 
These  motives,  which  would  gentler  minds  restrain, 
Could  not  make  Triope's  bold  son  abstain ; 
He  sternly  charged  his  slaves  with  strict  decree 
To  fell  with  gashing  steel  the  sacred  tree. 
But  while  they,  lingering,  his  commands  delayed, 
He  snatched  an  axe,  and  thus  blaspheming  said : 
'  Was  this  no  oak,  nor  Ceres'  favorite  care, 
But  Ceres'  self,  this  arm,  unawed,  should  dare 
Its  leafy  honors  in  the  dust  to  spread, 
And  level  with  the  earth  its  airy  head.' 
He  spoke,  and  as  he  poised  a  slanting  stroke, 
Sighs  heaved,  and  tremblings  shook  the  frighted  oak : 
Its  leaves  looked  sickly,  pale  its  acorns  grew, 
And  its  long  branches  sweat  a  chillv  dew. 
But  when  his  impious  hand  a  wound  bestowed, 
Blood  from  the  mangled  bark  in  currents  flowed. 
When  a  devoted  bull  of  mighty  size, 
A  sinning  nation's  grand  atonement,  dies, 
With  such  plenty  from  the  spouting  veins, 
A  crimson  stream  the  turfy  altars  stains. 
The  wonder  all  amazed ;  yet  one  more  bold, 
The  fact  dissuading,  strove  his  axe  to  hold. 
But  the  Thessalian,  obstinately  bent, 
Too  proud  to  change,  too  hardened  to  repent, 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  259 

On  his  kind  monitor,  his  eves,  which  burned 
With  rage,  and  with  his  eyes  his  weapon  turned  : 
1  Take  the  reward,'  says  he,  '  of  pious  dread : ' 
Then  with  a  blow  lopped  off  his  parted  head. 
No  longer  checked,  the  wretch  his  crime  pursued, 
Doubled  his  strokes,  and  sacrilege  renew'd; 
When  from  the  jrroaninjr  trunk  a  voice  was  heard : 
1  A  dryad  I,  by  Ceres'  love  preferr'd, 
Within  the  circle  of  this  clasping  rind 
Coeval  grew,  and  now  in  ruin  join'd : 
But  instant  vengeance  shall  thy  sin  pursue, 
And  death  is  cheered  with  this  prophetic  view.' " 

As  has  been  already  shown,  a  deed  so  flagitious 
called  for  a  speedy  and  condign  punishment,  and 
Ceres,  agreeably  to  the  fancy  of  the  metamorphosiz- 
ing  poet,  addressing  a  nymph,  the  mountain's  ranger, 
revealed  her  plan,  and  in  words  like  these  charged 
her  with  her  high  commands :  — 

"  Where  frozen  Scythia's  utmost  bound  is  placed, 
A  desert  lies,  a  melancholy  waste : 
In  yellow  crops  there  Nature  never  smiled, 
No  fruitful  tree  to  shade  the  barren  wild. 
There  sluggish  cold  its  icy  station  makes, 
There  paleness  frights,  and  anguish  trembling  shakes. 
Of  pining  Famine  this  the  fated  seat, 
To  whom  my  orders  in  these  words  repeat : 
Bid  her  this  miscreant  with  her  sharpest  pains 
Chastise,  and  sheathe  herself  into  his  veins. 
The  fiend  obeyed  the  goddess's  command, 
(Though  their  effects  in  opposition  stand,) 
She  cut  her  way,  supported  by  the  wind, 
And  reached  the  mansion  by  the  nymph  assigned. 
'T  was  night,  when,  entering  Erisichthon's  room, 
Dissolved  in  sleep,  and  thoughtless  of  his  doom, 
She  clasped  his  limbs,  by  impious  labor  tired, 
With  battish  wings,  but  her  whole  self  inspired ; 


260  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

Breathed  on  his  throat  and  chest  a  tainting  blast, 

And  in  his  veins  infused  an  endless  fast. 

The  task  despatched,  away  the  fury  flies 

From  plenteous  regions,  and  from  ripening  skies ; 

To  her  old  barren  north  she  wings  her  speed, 

And  cottages  distressed  with  pinching  need. 

Still  slumbers  Erisichthon's  senses  drown, 

And  soothe  his  fancy  with  their  softest  down. 

He  dreams  of  viands  delicate  to  eat, 

And  revels  on  imaginary  meat. 

Chews  with  his  working  mouth,  but  chews  in  vain, 

And  tires  his  grinding  teeth  with  fruitless  pain ; 

Deludes  his  throat  with  visionary  fare, 

Feasts  on  the  wind,  and  banquets  on  the  air. 

The  morning  came,  the  night  and  slumbers  passed, 

But  still  the  furious  pangs  of  hunger  last ; 

The  cank'rous  rage  still  gnaws  with  griping  pains, 

Stings  in  his  throat,  and  in  his  bowels  reigns. 

Straight  he  requires,  impatient  in  demand, 

Provision  from. the  air,  the  seas,  the  land. 

But  though  the  land,  air,  seas,  provisions  grant, 

Starves  at  full  tables,  and  complains  of  want. 

What  to  a  people  might  in  dole  be  paid, 

Or  victual  cities  for  a  long  blockade, 

Could  not  one  wolfish  appetite  assuage ; 

For  glutting  nourishment  increased  its  rajre. 

As  rivers  poured  from  every  distant  shore 

The  sea  insatiate  drinks,  and  thirsts  for  more, 

Or  as  the  fire,  which  all  materials  burns, 

And  wasted  forests  into  ashes  turns, 

Grows  more  voracious  as  the  more  it  preys, 

Recruits  dilate  the  flame,  and  spread  the  blaze, 

So  impious  Erisichthon's  hunger  raves, 

Receives  refreshments,  and  refreshments  craves. 

Food  raises  a  desire  for  food,  and  meat 

Is  but  a  new  provocative  to  eat. 

He  grows  more  empty,  as  the  more  supplied, 

And  endless  cramming  but  extends  the  void." 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  261 

The  world-mountains,  Olympus,  Meru,  and  Bordj, 
play  a  conspicuous  part  in  ancient  mythology,  and 
have'  a  significance  which  is  analogous  to  that  of 
the  Yggdrasill,  the  Aswatha,  the  Gogard,  etc., 
already  described.  Mount  Olympus  is  located  in 
the  north-eastern  limits  of  the  ancient  Thessaly, 
near  the  confines  of  Macedonia,  now  known  as 
Roumelia,  and  which  constitutes  a  part  of  the  Otto- 
man empire  in  Europe.  It  is  about  twenty  miles 
north  of  Larissa,  and  is  separated  from  Mount  Ossa 
by  the  famous  vale  of  Tempe,  through  which  the 
river  Peneus,  recognized  in  modern  geography  under 
the  name  of  Salambria,  discharges  its  limpid  waters 
into  the  Aegean.  Mount  Oly.mpus  was  emphati- 
cally the  holy  mountain  of  Greece,  and  distinguished 
preeminently  as  the  choice  abode  of  the  gods.  One 
of  its  significations  is  heaven,  and  it  was  the  ac- 
knowledged heaven-mountain  of  the  sprightly  Hel- 
lenic race.  Its  other  import  is  heaven  and  earth,  or 
heavenly  and  earthly  ;  a  meaning  which  must  neces- 
sarily be  involved  in  a  heaven-mountain,  as  it  is  the 
cosmic  pole  of  the  terrestrial  and  the  supernal 
world.  Jupiter  held  his  august  court  upon  its 
summit,  and  all  the  principal  superhadean  divinities 
of  Greece  were  unanimous  in  selecting  it  as  the 
most  eligible  site  for  their  diurnal  residence  :  in  the 
night  they  lodged  in  their  starry  domes.  The  meet- 
ing of  these  magnificent  beings  upon  their  favorite 
mountain  in  the  morning,  and  their  departure  from 
it  in  the  evening,  are  thus  vividly  portrayed  by  one 
poet,  and  elegantly  interpreted  by  another  :  — 

"  Twelve  days  were  past,  and  now  the  dawning  light 
The  gods  had  summoned  to  the  Olympian  height : 


262  THE   HEATHEX   RELIGION 

Jove,  first  ascending  from  the  water*}''  bowers, 

Leads  the  long  order  of  ethereal  powers, 

When,  like  the  morning-mist  in  early  day, 

Rose  from  the  flood  the  daughter  of  the  sea ; 

And  to  the  seats  divine  her  flight  address'd. 

There,  far  apart,  and  high  above  the  rest, 

The  thunderer  sat ;  where  old  Olympus  shrouds 

His  hundred  heads  in  heaven,  and  props  the  clouds.  — 

Meantime  the  radiant  sun,  to  mortal  sight 

Descending  swift,  rolled  down  the  rapid  light. 

Then  to  their  starry  domes  the  gods  depart, 

The  shining  monuments  of  Vulcan's  art : 

Jove  on  his  couch  reclined  his  awful  head, 

And  Juno  slumbered  on  the  golden  bed." 

Mount  Olympus  is  said  to  be  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  in  perpendicular  height.  Homer  describes  it  as 
towering  far  above  the  clouds,  and  crowned  with 
fleecy  snow ;  while  succeeding  poets  have  not  hesi- 
tated to  clothe  its  summit  in  the  soft  and  balmy 
attributes  of  perpetual  spring.  There  were  a  num- 
ber of  other  Olympic  mountains  both  in  Europe 
and  in  Asia,  which  were  of  course  all  heaven-moun- 
tains and  mountains  of  the  gods  on  a  smaller  scale 
and  with  humbler  pretensions.  A  halo  of  glory 
shed  its  preternatural  lustre  over  these  celestial 
abodes,  and  stamped  the  impress  of  divinity  upon 
every  thing  around  them.  By  the  exercise  of  a 
simple  faith  and  an  exuberant  imagination,  the 
ancients  raised  them  even  to  the  rank  and  dignity 
of  gods ;  and  Strabo  distinctly  states  that  Mount 
Amanus  was  worshipped  with  divine  honors  among 
the  Persians.  The  lofty  peaks  of  these  mountains, 
wrapped  in  snow;  shrouded  in  mist  and  clouds  ;  or 
steeped  in  the  mellow,  cerulean  tints  of  heaven, 
were  presumed  to  conceal  the  sublime  mysteries  of 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  263 

the  generation  and  birth  of  the  gods ;  and  while, 
according  to  the  creed  of  the  Persians,  the  circum- 
ambient ether  of  empyrean  space  was  the  translucid 
sphere  of  Ormuzd's  divine  activity,  the  Greeks  in- 
dulged in  the  belief  that  the  whole  atmospheric 
circumference  of  the  glittering  celestial  vault,  was 
Zeus  or  Jupiter,  and  therefore  in  the  popular  mani- 
festation of  their  devotion,  they  worshipped  it  not 
only  as  a  god,  but  as  the  chief  of  the  mundane  divin- 
ities. 

The  broad  basis  of  the  religious  creed  of  the  Hin- 
doos, was  the  holy  mountain  Mem  or  Mandar,  the 
old  or  mythic  name  of  the  Himmaleh  mountains, 
especially  the  most  elevated  parts  of  them  called  the 
Dhawalgeri.  It  formed  the  solid  foundation  of  their 
wide  spreading  and  intricate  religious  system,  and 
they  unanimously  regarded  it  as  the  prolific  source 
of  their  origin,  as  well  as  the  most  sacred  habitation 
of  the  gods.*  It  was  their  firm  conviction  that  a 
portion  of  the  essential  attributes  of  the  true  God- 

*The  ample  base  of  Mem  was  supposed  to  rest  upon  the 
abyss  of  the  world-fountain ;  and  as  it  is  the  beneficent  source  or 
generator  of  innumerable  brooks  and  torrents,  whose  myriad 
streams  form  the  mighty  Ganges  and  the  dark -blue  Indus,  as 
well  as  many  other  rivers  of  inferior  fame,  a  salubrious  climate,  a 
fertile  soil,  and  an  enchanting  landscape,  were,  in  a  great  measure, 
justly  attributed  to  the  fluviatile  advantages  which  this  sacred 
mountain  conferred  upon  India.  It  will  therefore  be  readily  ad- 
mitted that  it  was  perfectly  natural  for  its  primitive  inhabitants  — 
the  simple,  unsophisticated  children  of  nature,  to  deem  it  holy, 
and  to  venerate  it  as  the  mysterious  laboratory  of  nature.  In 
this  sanctum  sanctorum  and  cradle  of  the  world,  they  excavated 
temples  —  little  Merus,  and  inscribed  the  inside  with  the  hiero- 
glyphical  symbols  of  their  faith  and  of  their  hopes. 


264  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

head  lay  concealed  in  the  bowels  of  this  Oriental 
Alp,  and  that  its  profound  chasms  attested  his  pres- 
ence and  proclaimed  his  energy.  This  idea,  appar- 
ently so  extravagant,  will  cease  to  excite  our  sur- 
prise, if  we  steadily  bear  in  mind  that  this  mountain 
is  the  Hindoo  world-mountain ;  ay,  the  infinite 
mundane  pillar,  or  Siva-pillar,  in  which  the  divinity 
of  Siva  was  cosmogonically  embodied,  and  from 
which  the  god  went  forth  in  the  display  of  his  omni- 
presence and  power :  as  the  sun,  he  rose  and  set  on 
Meru,  and  during  his  reign  above  the  horizon,  he 
was  the  south  pole ;  while  in  his  subterranean  orbit, 
he  represented  or  expressed  the  north  pole  of  the 
Meru-world.*  Within  the  profound  recesses  of  this 
mysterious  and  wonderful  mountain,  the  gods  pre- 
pared the  life-drink,  the  prima  materia  or  atomic 
germs  of  organic  life.  Pervaded  and  animated  by 
an  invisible,  divine  power,  it  was  here  that  the  em- 
bryo-world originated,  which,  when  it  was  fully 
developed,  revealed  God  in  space  as  the  nature  of 


*It  appears  from  Kanne,  that  the  Meru,  Mandar,  and  Ka- 
laya,  are  interchangeable  terms,  and  that  they  designate  the  same 
mountain.  Upon  this  world-mountain,  familiarly  known  as  Meru, 
a  temple  is  erected,  and  the  Hindoos  are  accustomed  to  assemble 
at  Tirounamaly,  and  to  celebrate  a  grand  festival  in  honor  of  the 
holy  fane.  At  this  place,  and  upon  the  day,  Paor-Nbmi,  this 
extraordinary  mountain  was  produced  to  personate  Siva  when 
he  descended  at  that  place  in  a  pillar  of frey  to  settle  a  dispute 
among  the  gods  upon  the  subject  of  precedence.  To  commem- 
orate this  event,  the  celestial  pacificator  converted  his  pillar  of 
fire  —  the  mundane  embodiment  of  his  divinitv,  into  this  moun- 
tain,  that  his  pious  votaries  might  recognize  and  worship  him 
under  this  image  —  the  symbol  of  his  divine  presence  and  provi- 
dence. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  265 

things.     Mem  bears  the   appellation  of  Himmaleh, 
or    snow    mountain,    on    account   of  its    snow-capt 
summit,  which,  in  a  macrocosmic  sense,  is  its  north 
pole  communicating  hieroglyphically  with  the  invisi- 
ble world,  while  the  centre  of  its  basis  is  its  south 
pole,  both  thus  forming  the  nexus  between  the  ma- 
terial and  the  spiritual  universe.     It  has  also  a  north 
and  south  phasis ;  the  former  is  dark  and  cold,  the 
latter  luminous  and  warm.      That  is  the  true  Him- 
maleh, while  this  is  known  as  Calais,  a  term  which 
is  derived  from  Kelees,  which  denotes  hot,  or  burn- 
ing.     Hence    these    two    opposite    points    of    Meru 
constitute  its  two  little  or  microcosmic  poles.     The 
mountain  designated  the  Bordj,  with  the  article  Al- 
bordj,  is  the  mythic  world-mountain  of  the  ancient 
Persians.     Its  name,  according  to  Kanne,  who,  how- 
ever, ignores  the  prefix  Al  as  its  article,  signifies  the 
taiirus-mountain,  and  is  etymologically  composed  of 
Alb,  denoting  an  ox,  in  its  generic  acceptation,  and 
Ordi,  meaning  the  earth,  —  an  appellation  which,  if 
founded  in  a  true   etymon,  refers,  no  doubt,  to  the 
commencement  of  astronomical  time  in  the  sign  of 
Taurus ;    a  fact  which  it  was  easy  for  the  human 
mind  to  apply  by  a  metastasial  figure,  to  the  origin 
of  the  world,  especially  as  all  kosmos  —  order  and 
beauty  of  creation,  could  but  exist   synchronically 
with    the    periodical   revolutions    of    the   planetary 
spheres.     From   this  mountain,  all  mundane  exist- 
ence  took   its   rise,  and  the    stars  leapt  into   their 
orbicular   paths.     Cosmically  considered,   it  is   the 
symbol  of  creation  and  its  genetic  connection  with 
the  Infinite,  Supreme  Essence,  Zeruane  Akerene ;  a 

23 


266  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

name  the  literal  meaning  of  which  is,  the  Illimitable 
or  Uncreated  Time.  The  Bordj  is  unhesitatingly 
affirmed  to  be  the  navel  of  the  world,  and  the 
mountain  of  mountains.  It  towers  far  above  the 
most  elevated  parts  of  the  earth,  and  fans  its  lofty 
brow  in  the  subtile  ether  of  heaven.  From  it  have 
descended  prophets  and  lawgivers,  who  imparted  to 
mankind  the  rays  of  a  purer  light,  and  opened  to 
them  the  vista  of  a  brighter  hope.  Suffice  it  to 
say,  it  was  the  prolific  seed-bed  and  potent  centre 
of  the  religious  dogmas  and  liturgic  rites  of  the 
ancient  Persians.  —  The  pyramids  of  Egypt,  the 
most  lofty  and  stupendous  monuments  of  ancient 
architecture,  are  the  artistic  world-mountains  and 
world-trees  of  the  people  of  the  Nile.  The  symbol- 
ical representation  of  the  world  in  the  Egyptian 
temples,  as  described  by  Creuzer  and  the  French 
savans,  fully  corroborates  this  fact.  Placed  within 
one  of  those  sacred  structures  —  that  of  Dendara, 
for  example,  containing  the  zodiacal  sphere  within 
its  cupola,  let  us  call  to  mind  the  normal  or  prime- 
val era  of  the  celestial  signs,  at  the  solemn  and  de- 
cisive moment  of  the  commencement  of  the  great 
year,  in  the  holy  night  of  the  first  summer  solstice 
succeeding  the  termination  of  a  tempic  cycle  of  three 
thousand  years,  and  we  shall  perceive  in  the  centre 
of  the  hieroglyphical  firmament  the  ram,  the  emblem 
of  Amun,  or  Jupiter-Ammon,  the  primordial  light, 
and  God  of  gods.  Further  down  appear  the  rest  of 
the  ecliptic  symbols,  followed  by  their  satellites,  etc., 
and  thus  descending  through  all  the  spheres  until 
merging  beneath  the  moon,  and  at  last  arriving  at 
the  terrestrial  gods,  when  the  grand  planetary  pyra- 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  267 

mid  terminates  in   Isis,  the   broad  and  solid  basis 
comprising  all  material  existence. 

The  better  to.  appreciate  an  investigation  like  the 
present,  it  should  be  carefully  borne  in  mind,  that, 
according  to  the  cosmic  and  theogonic  systems  of 
the  ancients,  all  the  mundane  gods,  as  well  as  all 
the  constituent  elements  of  the  universe,  respectively 
well  and  flow  out  of  each  other,  while  the  life- 
stream  of  existence  which  supplies  all  these  evolu- 
tions or  cosmic  sequences,  emanates  from  the  source 
of  all  being  —  the  self-existent  Divinity ;  and  that 
from  its  apex  to  its  foundation,  this  pyramidal 
world-structure,  thus  evolved  and  united  in  a  geni- 
tive relationship  of  its  parts,  is  sustained  or  borne 
up  by  a  cosmic  band  of  resplendent  light  termi- 
nating in  the  hands  of  Annubis-Thoth-Hermes,  the 
Supreme  Spirit,  and  omnipotent  controller  of  the 
mundane  spheres.  The  priest  representing  Hermes, 
stands  at  the  sacred  altar  with  the  Hermes-lantern 
in  his  hand :  it  is  the  pregnant  symbol  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  of  the  astounding  drama  which  the  gods 
enact  in  it ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  all  the  diversified 
and  efficient  manifestations  of  the  deities  and  of 
organic  existence.  In  the  top  of  this  mundane  lan- 
tern are  the  holy  oil  and  the  lampic  flame,  typifying 
central  planetary  light  with  its  nebulous  atmosphere. 
The  centre  of  it  is  furnished  with  a  mirror  contain- 
ing fruits  and  plants  —  the  emblems  of  organic  life, 
and  at  its  base  is  placed  a  vase  replenished  with  the 
holy  water  of  the  Nile.  Whoever  looks  into  this 
magic  reflector  beholds  the  image  of  the  universe ! 
I  will  only  add  that,  according  to  Arabian  writers, 
each  of  the  seven  chambers  of  the  pyramids  bore 


268  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  name  of  a  planet,  and  that  therefore  the  primary- 
design  of  those  who  reared  these  massive  structures 
was  to  symbolize  a  great  cosmic  truth.*  This  view 
of  the  subject  is  still  further  confirmed  by  the  follow- 
ing observations  of  a  writer  in  the  New  Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia :  "  In  all  the  pyramids,"  says  he,  "  the 
entrance  is  in  the  north  front,  and  the  descending 
passages  have  an  angle  of  twenty-six  or  twenty- 
seven  degrees.  This  line  seems  to  be  nearly  directed 
to  the  pole  star,  and  the  north  face  of  the  pyramid 
to  be  almost  in  a  plane  of  the  earth's  equator.  This 
we  believe  has  never  been  remarked ;  and  we  want 
only  accurate  measures  to  put  it  beyond  a  doubt. 
But  if  they  even  deviated  two  or  three  degrees,  this 
only  shows  the  rudeness  of  astronomical  knowledge 
at  the  time  when  the  pyramids  were  built,  or  the 
rudeness  of  the  methods  by  which  the  angles  were 
laid  down." 


*  As  repositories  of  the  dead,  the  pyramids  played  a  subordi- 
nate yet  significant  part,  -while  their  architectural  forms  were  in- 
timately connected  with  one  of  the  primary  intentions  of  their 
builders.  As  the  original  design  in  constructing  them  was  to 
typify  the  emanation  of  all  things  from  a  point  in  the  invisible 
world  —  represented  by  the  apex  of  the  pyramid,  whence  they 
subtended  and  spread  out  into  circumambient  space  like  the 
branches  of  an  inverted  tree ;  so  the  sepulchral  use  to  which  they 
were  applied,  had  for  its  object  to  place  the  soul,  confined  in  the 
embalmed  and  mummied  body,  in  such  a  position  where,  at  the 
expiration  of  three  thousand  years,  when  it  should  again  return 
to  its  primeval  state  to  recommence  a  course  of  active  existence 
or  undergo  another  evolution,  it  might  be  able  the  more  readily 
to  effect  this  important  end  through  the  medium  of  the  mundane 
pillar  —  the  pyramid,  which  communicated  with  the  two  worlds, 
and  was  the  mystic  link  of  both. 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  269 

Among  the  Hindoos,  all  the  pagodas  are  of  a 
pyramidal  or  conical  form,  or  have  towers  of  that 
shape  in  the  buildings  which  surround  them.  Sir 
William  Jones  seems  to  regard  the  pyramidal  struc- 
tures of  antiquity,  the  tower  of  Babel  not  excepted, 
as  the  images  of  Manhadeva  or  Siva;  and  I  may 
remark  that  at  least  as  far  as  the  Hindoos  are  con- 
corned,  this  hypothesis  is,  to  some  extent,  founded  in 
truth,  inasmuch  as  Meru  is  the  embodied  image  and 
mundane  repository  of  the  divinity  of  Siva,  and  of 
course  the  sanctified  type  of  all  sacred  architecture 
among  his  votaries.  The  pyramidal  order  of  archi- 
tecture appears  to  have  prevailed  universally  among 
the  people  of  remote  ages,  and  to  have  deen  coex- 
tensive with  the  early  civilization  of  the  human 
race.  According  to  Stephens's  "  Central  America," 
the  ruins  of  Copan,  situated  in  the  province  of 
Honduras,  teem  with  the  pyramidal  remains  of  the 
primitive  inhabitants  of  that  ancient  city.  Among 
the  numerous  structures  of  this  kind  which  illustrate 
these  ruins,  the  Temple  of  Copan  deserves  a  brief 
notice.  "  This  temple,"  writes  our  distinguished 
antiquary,  "is  an  oblong  inclosure.  The  front  or 
river  wall  extends  on  a  right  line  north  and  south 
six  hundred  and  twenty-four  feet,  and  it  is  from 
sixty  to  ninety  feet  in  height.  It  is  made  of  cut 
stones,  from  three  to  six  feet  in  length,  and  a  foot 
and  a  half  in  breadth.  In  many  places  the  stones 
have  been  thrown  down  by  bushes  growing  out  of 
the  crevices,  and  in  one  place  there  is  a  small  open- 
ing, from  which  the  ruins  are  sometimes  called  by 
the  Indians,  las  Ventanas,  or  windows.  The  other 
three  sides  consist  of  ranges  of  steps  and  pyramidal 

23* 


270  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

structures,  rising  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and 
forty  feet  in  height  on  the  slope.  The  whole  line 
of  survey  is  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  feet,  which  though  gigantic  and  extraordinary 
for  a  ruined  structure  of  the  aborigines,  that  the 
reader's  imagination  may  not  mislead  him,  I  con- 
sider it  necessary  to  say,  is  not  so  large  as  the  base 
of  the  great  Pyramid  of  Ghizeh.*  The  obelisks  of 
antiquity  compose  an  important  element  in  the 
category  of  cosmic  symbols,  and  will  therefore  form 
the  closing  theme  of  this  paragraph. 

In  the  Zendavesta  —  the  sacred  Scriptures  of  the 
ancient  Persians,  the  primeval  fire  is  called  the  bond 
between  Zeruane  Akerene  and  Ormuzd,  or  between 
the  Supreme  God  and  his  highest  beneficent  evolu- 
tion, considered  as  the  good  mundane  demiurgus.  In 
relation  to  the  First  Cause,  Mithras,  the  supermun- 
dane, highest  emanation  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and 
next  to  him  in  rank  and  power  is  the  sun  of  grace ; 
in  relation  to  Ahriman,  the  fire  of  love ;  in  relation 
to  nature,  the  ward  and  purifier  of  the  sun ;  in  rela- 
tion to  mankind,  the  refiner ;  and  in  all  these  rela- 
tions combined,  the  mediator.  According  to  the 
foregoing  dogmas,  a  bond  of  fire  connects  God  and 
creation ;  Mithras  mediates  between  the  one  Eternal 
and  his  manifold  works ;  and  these  facts  involve  the 


*  This  pyramid,  known  preeminently  as  the  great  pyramid,  was 
built  in  the  reign  of  the  profligate  Cheops ;  it  required,  according 
to  Herodotus,  twenty  years  in  its  erection ;  is,  as  we  learn  from 
Savary,  five  hundred  and  seventeen  feet  six  inches  in  perpendicu- 
lar height ;  and  has  a  square  base  of  seven  hundred  feet,  covering 
an  area  of  upwards  of  eleven  acres. —  G. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  271 

idea  of  an  obeliskic  form  of  agency  between  absolute 
and  contingent  existence,  beginning  in  unity  and  ter- 
minating in  plurality.  The  obelisks,  dedicated  to  the 
sun  as  the  representative  and  brightest  image  of  the 
primordial  light,  were  intended  to  typify  its  rays,  both 
in  respect  to  their  lineal  emission  and  their  refracted 
expansion.  Hence  their  apices  generally  point  to- 
wards heaven,  though  the  Mycenean  and  some 
others  present  a  position  the  reverse  of  this,  or  ob- 
tuse summits  and  pointed  bases  ;  and  the  architects 
who  thus  erected  them  on  a  principle  adverse  to  the 
laws  of  gravity,  wished,  no  doubt,  to  symbolize  the 
terrestrial  fires,  as  they  are  recognized  in  volcanos ; 
in  coal  and  naphtha-beds ;  in  inflammable  gases ; 
and  in  the  ordinary  forms  of  combustion,  the  rays 
of  which  ascend,  and  by  their  refraction  in  the 
lower  strata  of  the  atmosphere,  form  counterparts  to 
the  inverted  obelisks.  Among  the  sculptured  re- 
mains which  attest  the  plastic  skill  of  the  Persians, 
obelisks   are    actually  found  with   ascending  rays* 

*Near  Baku,  a  city  of  Georgia,  situated  upon  the  western 
coast  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  surface-soil  is  extensively  impreg- 
nated with  inflammable  gas,  evolved  from  the  petroleum  or  naph- 
tha with  which  the  earth  of  that  region  abounds  to  an  almost  in- 
credible degree.  Viewed  from  a  distance,  the  ignited  jets  of 
naphtha,  issuing  everywhere  from  the  crevices  of  the  soil  during 
certain  periods  of  the  year,  give  to  the  country  the  appearance 
of  a  solid  sheet  of  flame  overspreading  its  surface.  Here  some 
of  the  Gebres  or  Guebres  —  the  fire-worshippers  of  India,  whither 
they  emigrated  to  escape  from  the  faith  of  the  Koran  or  the  scime- 
tars  of  the  faithful,  have  established  a  colony  and  founded  a  tem- 
ple. For  the  following  interesting  facts,  we  are  indebted  to  the 
Russian  Archives  for  Scientific  Information :  "  When,"  says  a 
distinguished  Russian  lady  who,  with  her  husband  and  sons,  vis- 


272  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

The  Hermen,  Ermin,  or  Irmcmsaule,  of  the  ancient 
Franks  and  other  German  nations,  signifies  an  obe- 
lisk, a  pyramid,  etc. ;  and  Mone  teaches  us  that  the 
Irman-obelisk,  or  pillar,  was  a  statue  of  Irmin,  the 
second  son  of  Hermin ;  a  name  which  conveyed  the 
idea  of  man,  or  humanity.  In  the  course  of  ages, 
the  personal  existence  of  Irmin  became  obliterated 
from  the  minds  of  his  votaries,  and  his  name,  like 
that  of  his  illustrious  sire,  came  to  denote  mankind, 
especially  the  Teutonic  people.  I  am  of  opinion 
that  the  Irmansul  was  one  of  the  holy  relics 
which  these  people  carried  with  them  in  their  emi- 
gration from  Asia,  and  that  instead  of  Irmin,  it  was 
originally  designed  to  commemorate  the  name  and 
character  of  the  Egyptian  god  Hermes,  the  mythi- 
cally and  hieroglyphically  acknowledged  founder  of 
obeliskic  architecture ;  the  father  and  first  teacher  of 


ited  this  Gebre  temple,  "  we  finally  reached  the  place,  it  was 
pitch  dark;  the  flames  were  rising  in  beautiful  purity  to  the 
peaceful  sky  of  night,  and  the  entire  castle  within  which  was  the 
temple,  seemed  to  be  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  watchfires. 
These  were  lighted  by  Persians  from  the  neighborhood,  who 
were  busy  burning  lime  and  baking  bread.  All  that  is  necessary, 
to  obtain  the  gas,  is  to  make  a  hole  in  the  ground,  touch  a  burn- 
ing coal  to  it,  and  an  inexhaustible  flame  rises  forth  like  a  spring. 
Behind  this  range  of  little  flames  and  fire^,  rose  in  the  pale  light 
the  dirty  white  walls  of  the  castle,  in  the  centre  of  which  there 
flashed  from  the  summit  of  two  lofty  pillars,  great  masses  of  the 
purest,  clearest,  and  keenest  flames,  which  were  now  bent  down 
horizontally  and  wreathed  like  serpents  by  the  force  of  the  wind, 
and  now  rose  perpendicularly  to  the  sky,  whose  dome  they  lighted 
up  like  two  vast  altar  tapers,  etc."  The  priest  who  officiated  on 
this  occasion,  wore  a  white  turban  and  a  brown  robe  —  the  rem- 
nant majesty  of  a  pristine  glory ! 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  273 

all  science;  the  erudite  prototype  of  the  sacerdotal 
order ;  the  exalted  bearer  of  the  cosmical  lantern 
and  the  cosmical  mirror ;  the  soul  of  the  world ;  the 
author  of  all  intellectual  light  and  spiritual  gifts : 
the  mundane  symbol  of  the  Supreme  Mind,  and 
himself  that  Supreme  Mind ! 


DIVISION  II. 


THE  GODS  OF  THE  HEATHENS,  REPRESENTED  IN  MYTHOL- 
OGY AS  THE  MUNDANE  SOURCES  AND  DISPENSERS  OF 
LIGHT  AND  FIRE,  AND  CONSIDERED  IN  RELATION  TO 
THEIR  PNEUMATICAL  ATTRIBUTES,  OR  THEIR  SPIRIT- 
UALITY, AND  ETHICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  CHARACTER. 


SECTION   I. 

THE  MITHRAS  AND   MITRA  OF  THE  PERSIANS. 

Agreeably  to  the  statement  made  by  Firmicus, 
in  his  "  Errours  of  Profane  Religion,"  the  existence 
of  Mithras  and  Mitra  had  its  origin  in  a  metaphys- 
ical subtilty  of  the  Persians,  who  resolved  their 
supreme  god  Zeus  into  two  sexes,  represented  by 
Mithras  and  Mitra,  in  whose  persons  they  sought 
to  symbolize  and  to  adore  the  inherent  pyric  attri- 
butes of  their  Divine  parent  as  male  and  female 
fires.*      With    these   ideas,    excepting   the    nominal 

*  The  reader  will  readily  perceive  that  though  the  statement  of 
Firmieus  is  essentially  true,  yet  that  in  regard  to  the  name  of  the 
Supreme  Being  of  the  Persians,  it  is  palpably  false ;  for  not  Zeus, 
but  Zeruane  Akerene,  was  the  Supreme  God  of  the  ancient 
builders  of  Persepolis.  The  first,  the  highest,  and  the  purest 
emanation  from  him,  is  Mithras,  and  Mithra  is  the  mundane  body, 
inclosing  in  her  ample  womb  the  fires  of  creation,  infused  into  it 
by  the  primordial  source  of  light,  Zeruane  Akerene,  through 
the  medium  of  Ormuzd,  the  creator  T>f  the  world. 

(274) 


THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,   ETC.  275 

genesis  of  Mithras  and  Mitra,  the  doctrines  of  the 
Zendavesta  —  the  bible  of  the  ancient  fire-worship- 
pers, known  as  the  Guebres  or  Parsees,  perfectly 
agree.  They  proclaim  fire  as  the  omnipotent  organ 
of  divine  energy,  and  teach  that  it  includes  mascu- 
line and  feminine  attributes,  or  that  it  is  either  gen- 
erative or  conceiving  and  bearing.  Zoroaster,  the 
world-renowned  hierophant,  called  Zeratusht,  Zer- 
dusht,  or  Zaradush  by  the  Persians,  and  Zoroastres 
by  the  Greeks,  has  the  honor  to  have  first  promul- 
gated, or  at  least  reduced  into  a  system,  the  tenets 
of  the  Zendavesta.  This  important  event,  the  traces 
of  which  still  exist  among  mankind,  took  place  in 
the  age  of  Gustasp,  or  Gushtasp,  who  is  supposed 
by  some  authors  —  erroneously,  no  doubt,  to  be  the 
same  as  Darius  Hystaspes.*  Mitra  was  the  name 
of  the  principal  fire-goddess  among  the  Persians. 
In  Assyria  she  was  worshipped  under  the  appella- 
tion of  Mylitta,  and  in  Arabia  under  that  of  Alitta. 
Among  the  imaginative  Greeks,  she  figured  under 
the  diversified  cognomens  of  Ilithyia,  Artemis,  Aph- 
rodite, Proserpine  or  Persephone,  Urania,  Hecate, 
etc.,  all  the  pyric  excellences  of  whom,  the  devout 
Persians  included  in  their  idea  of  Mitra  —  the  mother 
of  the  world  and  of  all  its  generative  productions. 
The  name  Mitra  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the 
Persic  Mihr  or  Mihir  —  love,  and  the  graceful  god- 
dess who  bears  it  is  justly  regarded  as  the  Persian 

*  Hyde  and  Prideaux  make  Zoroaster  contemporary  •with  Da- 
rius Hystaspes :  a  supposition  which  confounds  this  prince  "with 
Gushtasp ;  while,  as  it  appears  from  Movie,  the  Greek  writers  of 
the  age  of  Darius  Hystaspes  fixed  the  era  of  the  hierophant  many 
centuries  anterior  to  their  own  time. 


276  THE  HEATHEN  KELIGION 

Venus.*  In  her  bright  and  caustic  connubial  rela- 
tions, she  claims  Mithras  as  her  illustrious  and  de- 
voted consort,  who  also  responds  to  the  denomina- 
tion of  Perses,  a  title  which  is  probably  synonymous 
with  the  phrase  the  Persian,  and  signifies  the  light, 
or  shining.  This  splendid  name,  under  which  Mithras 
had  displayed  his  presence  and  received  the  homage 
due  to  a  divinity  of  light  and  fire,  in  Ethiopia,  Egypt, 
and  Greece,  at  last  survived  only  in  the  Sabazia, 
or  orgies  of  Bacchus.  Light  and  fire  are  not  only 
the  most  subtile,  but  also  the  most  pure  and  effective 
forms  of  matter  in  nature  ;  and  therefore,  among  all 
the  elementary  bodies  of  which  the  universe  is  com- 
posed, they  may  be  reasonably  presumed  to  be  pre- 
eminently calculated  to  reflect  with  at  least  some 
approximation  to  truth,  the  power  and  glory  of  the 
Eternal.  Hence  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  fire- 
worship,  or  rather  the  worship  of  God  under  the 
personified  symbols  of  fire,  is  almost  coeval  with  the 
existence  of  the  human  race.  Fire-worship  appears 
to  have  been  common  to  the  ritual  of  the  Bramins 
and  the  Parsees,  and  to  have  spread  from  India  and 
Persia  among  the  rest  of  mankind.  Sabaism,  or 
the  worship  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  is 
its  most  natural  and  most  ancient  form.  Terrestrial 
fires  :  such,  for  instance,  as  those  of  the  naphtha- 
fountains  of  Aderbidshan  in  Persia  —  the  altar  and 
vestal  fires  of  nature's  priesthood,  whose  pure,  bright 
flame  seems  to  vie  with  the  eradiated  fires  of  the 
celestial    orbs,   in   illustrating   and   inculcating    the 


*  Mihr  denotes  also  the  sun  in  its  capacity  of  recipient  of  the 
luminous  and  caloric  rays  from  the  primordial  light. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  277 

homage  that  is  due  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  may  have 
suggested  the  idea  of  fire-altars,  vestal  fires,  and  the 
organization  of  a  harmonious  and  an  imposing  liturgic 
fire-service  among  the  nations  of  antiquity.  Persia, 
—  the  land  of  light,  has  the  honor  to  have  borne 
away  the  palm  among  the  ancients,  in  its  profound 
devotion  to  the  religion  based  upon  the  principles  of 
light  and  heat;  and  it  was  in  the  Eden-plain  of 
Schiras  that  the  God  of  Light  was  adored  in  the 
worship  and  under  the  name  of  Mithras  —  the  per- 
sonified symbol  of  fire,  as  the  masculine  element  of 
creation.  Mithras,  the  deified  symbol  of  light  and 
fire,  stood  ethically  between  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman, 
and  was  therefore  denominated  the  mediator :  a 
function  which  does  not  imply  a  participation  in  the 
opposite  and  perverse  nature  of  the  latter  of  these 
mundane  powers,  but  which  is  to  be  viewed  merely 
as  a  gracious  extension  of  aid  to  the  beneficent  god 
Ormuzd,  for  the  important  purpose  of  facilitating 
the  reconciliation  of  the  malignant  Ahriman  to 
Zeruane  Akerene,  and  of  eventually  securing  his 
submission  to  the  divine  laws.  In  his  solar  attri- 
bute, Mithras,  considered  in  regard  to  day  and  night, 
is  represented  as  dwelling  both  in  the  spheres  of 
light  and  in  the  regions  of  darkness.  As  mediator 
between  god  and  man,  he  is  the  suffering  yet  trium- 
phant savior.  He  is  emphatically  called  the  highest 
god :  a  title  which  is  strictly  appropriate  only  when 
he  is  compared  with  other  emanations  of  the  Su- 
preme Being;  for  he  is  the  prototokos  —  the  first- 
born of  the  gods.  This  circumstance,  as  also  the 
fact  that  he  is  demiurgus,  in  as  far  as  he  supplies 
more  immediately  the  means  and  preeminently  di- 

•24 


278  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

rects  the  ends  of  creation  :  thus  acting  as  medial 
factor,  or  nexus,  between  the  Eternal  and  Ormuzd, 
justly  elevate  him  to  the  rank  of  the  highest  mun- 
dane divinity.  Hence  he  is  expressly  called  the 
organ  or  cosmic  agent  through  whom  all  the  ele- 
ments and  laws  of  the  universe  are  controlled  agree- 
ably to  the  divine  will.*  With  the  increasing  civili- 
zation of  mankind,  and  the  consequent  improvement 
of  their  religious  ideas,  the  Mithras-creed  was  very 
widely  disseminated.  The  Ethiopians  revered  the 
Persian  fire-god  as  their  oldest  lawgiver  and  the 
founder  of  their  religion.  It  was  the  popular  belief 
of  the  people  of  the  Nile  that  in  Egypt  —  the  land 


*  As  the  great  Egyptian  deity,  known  to  us  as  Osiris  —  thus 
denominator!  from  Hesios  and  Ilioros:  the  things  of  Hades  and 
of  Heaven,  the  union  or  connection  of  which  he  personified,  was 
the  exalted  model  of  conduct  to  every  pious  Egyptian;  so  Mith- 
ras—  the  magnificent  fire  divinity  and  effulgent  genius  of  the 
sun,  was  the  illustrious  prototype  of  every  Parsee :  a  name  which 
accordingly  signifies  the  clear,  or  the  bright.  His  being  consisted 
of  light:  in  a  higher  sense,  of  intellectual  light ;  and  in  the  highest 
sense,  of  empyreal  light,  or  Divine  light  and  fire.  In  him  every 
Parsee  has  a  splendid  precedent  of  a  twofold  glorification  through 
light,  and  info  light;  and  the  lofty  and  admirable  object  of  the 
Mithras-religion,  or  Magianism,  is  illumination,  or  the  transforma- 
tion of  darkness  into  light,  and  the  triumph  of  the  good  through- 
out all  nature :  in  the  body,  in  the  soul,  in  the  family  circle,  and 
in  the  state.  Persia  itself  is,  according  to  Creuzer,  Pares  and 
Pars  —  the  land  of  light!  Religion,  liturgic  service,  ethics,  civil 
institutions,  political  and  domestic  economy,  constitute  one  organic 
and  indivisible  totality,  founded  and  sustained  upon  the  principles 
of  light.  So  thoroughly  did  the  idea  of  purity  pervade  the  entire 
Mithras  religion,  and  animate  every  relation  of  human  life,  that  a 
solemn  lustration,  a  holy  baptism  of  initiation,  was  deemed  indis- 
pensable to  its  professors. 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  279 

of  monumental  fame,  where   Mithras  and   Memnon 

reciprocated  dominion  or   reigned   in    juxtaposition, 
til!-    formei   built   On   or   Heliopplis  —  the   sun-city, 

whose  first  king  bore  the  name  of  Mil  res  or  Jlestres; 
and  that  upon  the  suggestion  of  a  dream  lie  erected 
obelisks.  They  were  sun-obelisks  —  solar  monu- 
ments, or  the  architectural  symbols  of  the  origin  and 
refractive  expansion  of  the  solar  rays,  and  of  the 
light  which,  emanating  as  the  active;  principle  of 
creation  from  the  throne  of  God,  reveals  itself  in 
the  production  of  the  universe,  as  its  vast,  ramous, 
obeliskic  base.  As  the  sun,  considered  upon  the 
principles  of  pneumatology,  Mithras  bears  a  num- 
ber of  brilliant  attributes;  as,  the  eye  of  Ormuzd  ; 
the  dazzling,  fleet-coursing,  and  mighty  hero ;  the 
fructifier  of  the  desert ;  *  the  most  exalted  of  the 
Izeds  —  good  genii ;  the  sleepless  ;  and  the  protector 
of  Persia.  Hence  he  is  not  only  the  sun,  inasmuch 
as  this  glorious  luminary  is  genetically  derived  from 
him  as  the  honored  and  resplendent  repository  of 
the  primeval  light,  but  also  the  genius  or  controlling 
energv  of  the  sun,  dispensing  as  such  the  blessings 
of  light  and  heat  to  mother  earth.  In  the  Mithras- 
caves,  he  was  represented  as  standing  between  light 
and  darkness  —  his  position  being  at  the  entrance, 
in  the  sign  of  Taurus,  the  opener  of  the  solar  year, 
where  night  and  day  commingle,  and  twilight 
reigns.  Here,  upon  the  threshold  of  the  rising 
year,  he  appears  as  the  gallant  champion  of  light 
and  heat,  wrestling  with  the  dark,  cold,  wintry  influ- 
ences of  the  northern  hemisphere.  In  other  words, 
Mithras  assumes  his  place  in  the  vernal  equinox, 
and  has  the  north  —  in  the  language  of  the  ancients, 


280  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

the  lower  signs  of  the  ecliptic,  on  his  right,  and  the 
southern  or  upper  on  his  left  hand,  standing  at  the 
sideral  division  line  of  light  and  darkness,  or  at  the 
point  which  marks  the  superior  and  inferior  rotation 
of  the  planets :  in  popular  phrase,  between  Heaven 
and  Hades.  Contemplated  ethically  as  the  personi- 
fication of  humanity,  he  is  light  and  darkness,  pure 
and  impure ;  participates  in  the  adversities  and  sor- 
rows of  mankind ;  but  finally  triumphs  in  good.  At 
the  consummation  of  all  things,  he  will  act  as  the 
mediator  and  umpire  between  light  and  darkness ; 
annihilate  the  latter ;  and  finally,  by  the  eradication 
of  evil,  reconcile  Ahriman  to  Ormuzd.  From  these 
researches,  it  is  evident  that  Mithras  is  the  cosmic 
basis  of  all  things ;  that  he  is  the  unity  before  du- 
ality —  the  first  and  highest  divine  emanation  ;  and 
that  he  is  therefore  virtually  Zeruane  Akerene  him- 
self, and  hence  appropriately  styled  the  Father.  As 
mediator  in  the  flesh,  Mithras  conducts  the  souls  of 
mortals  back  to  God  through  the  zodiacal  path,  in 
the  same  manner  as  he  once  led  them  into  the  body. 
Mythology  records  the  existence  of  innumerable 
Mithras-hieroglyphics,  representing  the  grand  taurian 
sacrifice.  The  consecrated  place  of  immolation  is 
usually  in  the  mouth  of  the  Mithracosmic  cave. 
According  to  Eubulus,  Zoroaster,  the  golden  star ; 
the  profound  hierophant  and  venerable  prophet ;  the 
bringer  of  the  written  law  from  heaven ;  the  great 
Magus,  and  the  immortal  reformer  of  Magianism, 
constructed  or  prepared  such  a  cave,  in  which  he 
typified  the  nature  and  wonders  of  the  universe. 
Every  thing  in  this  prototype  of  the  Mithrasic  caves, 
was   singularly  significant:   the  twilight  —  the  em- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  281 

blem  of  the  origin  of  all  things  in  darkness  through 
the  agency  of  light ;  and  the  rock  in  which  the  cave 
was  wrought,  and  which  defined  its  area,  denoted 
the  pre-cosmic  matter  or  the  passive  basis  of  organic 
existence.  Within  its  circumference,  were  displayed 
all  the  planetary  relations  and  forms  of  creation  ;  as, 
the  zones,  the  fixed  stars,  the  primary  and  secondary 
planets,  the  zodiac,  the  elements,  etc.  In  the  en- 
trance of  the  cave  is  seen  Mithras  in  a  flowing  robe, 
a  Phrygian  cap,  and  a  long  nether  garment,  kneel- 
ing upon  an  ox  —  taurus,  the  tail  of  which  terminates 
in  three  spikes  of  corn.  With  his  left  hand,  the 
divine  sacrificer  closes  the  nostrils  of  the  devoted 
beast,  and  "with  the  right,  plunges  a  dagger  into  his 
heart.  A  dog  comes  up  in  front  of  the  victim ;  a 
snake  crawls  forth  to  lick  his  blood ;  and  a  scorpion 
nips  him  in  the  scrotum.  Another  Mithrasic  cave, 
illustrating  the  mysteries  and  powers  of  creation, 
displays  two  persons,  a  youth  and  an  aged  man,  the 
former  bearing  an  upraised,  and  the  latter,  a  de- 
clining torch.  In  the  front  part  of  the  tableau  is 
observed  a  tree,  the  leaf-buds  of  which  are  just 
unfolding  themselves.  Under  the  tree  is  perceived 
the  head  of  an  ox,  presenting  an  erect  torch ;  and 
behind  it,  another  head  of  the  same  animal,  contain- 
ing fruit,  accompanied  by  the  scorpion  already  no- 
ticed, and  bearing  a  reversed  torch.  The  ceiling  of 
the  cave  discloses  to  view  seven  Dadgahs,  or  fire" 
altars ;  and  on  its  walls  are  portrayed  the  sun 
mounted  upon  a  car,  drawn  by  four  coursers,  facing 
the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass,  and  the 
moon  going  forth  in  her  chariot  propelled  by  two 
steeds,  etc.    Among  the  hieroglyphics  of  these  caves, 

24* 


282  IHE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

figure  also  the  palm-tree,  the  death-skull,  etc.  Be- 
side the  usual  cosmic  representations,  in  a  Mithras- 
cave  represented  by  Hyde,  new  objects  are  intro- 
duced into  the  scene,  and  old  ones  appear  under 
modified  forms.  It,  too,  has  its  astronomical  taurus, 
but  on  each  side  of  him  is  a  youth,  the  one  holding 
an  arrow,  while  the  other  typifies  the  impregnation 
of  the  earth.  Its  floor  images  the  ocean  and  one  of 
its  most  celebrated  inhabitants  —  the  dolphin.  The 
following  facts  are  the  result  of  an  attempt  to  eluci- 
date the  symbolical  import  of  the  taurian  sacrifice 
as  represented  in  the  Mithras-caves.  Mithras,  as 
the  symbol  of  the  male-mundane  fire,  is  said  to  be 
the  son  of  the  Persian  world-mountain  Bordj,  from 
whose  primeval  rocks  he  went  forth  as  a  ray  of  fire, 
permeating    and    inflaming    the    earth.*      The    ox, 

*  Mithras,  born  as  a  spark  of  the  rocks  of  the  Bordj,  is  an 
idea  which,  to  the  tyro  in  mythology,  must  seem  to  border  on 
absurdity.  Perhaps  a  ray  of  light  may  be  thrown  upon  the  mys- 
tery of  the  rock-born  god.  The  Bordj,  in  its  capacity  of  world- 
mountain,  contains,  mytho-philosophicaliy  speaking,  the  active 
and  the  passive  principles  of  creation.  Rock,  or  stone,  is  earth, 
according  to  the  science  of  geology ;  and  earth  and  water  are  the 
passive  elements  of  cosmic  existence  —  the  female  principles, 
agreeably  to  cosmogonic  lore ;  the  matrix  in  which  the  world  was 
cast ;  the  mother  in  whose  fruitful  womb  it  was  connubially  be- 
gotten. Light  and  fire,  etc.,  are  the  active  or  male  principles  of 
creation,  and  these  being  infused  into  the  passive  elements  of 
earth,  water,  etc.,  the  union  results  in  the  procreation  of  the 
world.  The  pure  element  of  fire,  regarded  as  light  and  heat,  is 
thus  embodied  in  matter ;  the  tellurian  mother  has  conceived,  and 
whenever  fire  is  evolved  or  liberated  from  her  body,  she  brings 
forth,  and  the  child  is  greater  and  nobler  than  herself,  for  it  is  a 
male,  and  the  reflection  or  reemission  of  the  primordial  fire  in- 
fused into  her  by  the  Creator.     This  creator,  considered  as  the 


m  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  283 

which  is  immolated  in  the  entrance  of  the  cave,  is 
the  earth,  which  the  great  Dshemshid,  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  personified  solar  year,  once  cleaved  with 
his  golden  dagger.*  In  a  more  exalted  sense,  he  is 
matter  contemplated  as  the  seed-womb  of  being, 
and  therefore  to  be  viewed  as  being  of  the  feminine 
gender,  while  Mithras,  the  masculine  power,  is  the 
demiurgic  opener  of  this  tellurian  world-womb, 
whose  waters  are  thus  fructified  by  the  fire-rays  of 
the  primordial  light.  Astronomically  interpreted, 
Mithras  is  the  sun,  borne  upon  taurus,  into  which 
the   sun  enters   at  the  vernal  equinox.f     It  is   then 


primary  source  of  all  things,  is  first  and  preeminently  the  Eternal 
himself,  and  secondly  Mithras,  viewed  in  his  capacity  of  personi- 
fied primordial  light,  and  as  such  the  immediate  source  of  crea- 
tion, both  intellectually  and  as  it  regards  its  active  and  more 
ethereal  elements  —  light  and  fire.  Thus  Mithras,  born  of  the 
rock-mountain  of  the  world  —  the  Bordj,  which  is  hence  the 
Mitra  or  the  feminine  of  Mithras :  the  Persian  fire-goddess,  and 
therefore  at  once  the  mother  and  the  wife  of  the  fire-god  Mithras, 
is  the  electric  spark  of  Zeruane  Akerene,  revealed  in  time  and 
in  the  flesh.  According  to  Kleuker,  in  his  Anhang  zum  Zenda- 
vesta,  the  Bordj  had  once  a  real,  historic  existence.  I  will  only 
add,  that  in  consequence  of  his  petraic  birth,  Mithras  was  hon- 
ored among  the  Persians  with  the  appellative  formula  of  Theos 
ek  petras  —  the  god  of  the  rock  ! 

*  Dshemshid  was  among  the  ancient  Persians  what  Alexander 
and  Solomon  were  among  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews,  the  hero 
of  the  national  myth  and  song.  Under  his  reign  Persia  attained 
its  greatest  glory.  He  was  at  first  known  as  Dshem,  but  Shid, 
meaning  the  sun,  was  added  to  his  name  on  account  of  his  re- 
splendent beauty. 

f  About  twenty-two  centuries  ago,  the  constellations  of  the 
zodiac  and  the  signs  of  the  ecliptic  corresponded,  but  owing  to 
the  retrograde  motion  of  the  equinoxes,  the  latter  have  fallen 


284  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

that  this  sun-god  cleaves  taurus.  when  his  blood 
flows  reeking  to  the  earth  and  fructifies  it.  With  the 
autumnal  equinox,  the  sun  passes  into  Scorpio,  and 
now  the  vital  energies  of  vegetation  and  the  lower 
types  of  organic  life  generally,  begin  to  wane  or  be- 
come exhausted,  and  nature  pants  for  rest  —  the 
prelude  of  re-creation :  the  venomous  insect  —  the 
scorpion,  gnaws  at  the  seminal  glands  of  the  taurian 
beast.  The  vernant  tree  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
type  of  spring,  and  the  youth  with  the  upraised 
torch,  as  the  symbol  of  the  ascension  of  the  sun  in 
the  ecliptic,  etc. ;  while  the  season  of  physical  decay 
and  elementary  stagnation  —  the  autumn,  is  further 
symbolized  by  the  fruit-bearing  tree,  and  the  hoary, 
aged  individual,  tottering  on  the  confines  of  life. 
The  snake,  licking  up  the  blood  of  the  expiring 
beast  —  the  earth,  stabbed  by  Mithras,  or  the  sun, 
retrograding  into  the  southern  hemisphere,  is  to  be 
regarded  as  the  good  snake,  the  agathodaimon,  re- 
ceiving the  spilled  life  of  the  terrestrial  taurus,  and 
preserving  it  in  its  world-ring,  which  uncoils  again 
at  the  coming  spring.  Only  in  so  far  as  the  snake 
completes  the  apparent  destruction  of  taurus,  and 
infallibly  withholds  its  fructifying  blood  for  a  season, 
can  it  be  considered  as  evil,  and  stigmatized  as  the 
snake  of  death.  The  dying  taurus,  viewed  in  his 
cosmic  relation  as  Abadus,  or  the  mundane  taurus, 
typifies  the  dissolution  of  the  world,  and  in  this 
sense  the  snake   is  the  world-snake,  in   the  proper 


back  of  the  former  about  tliirtv-one  decrees,  and  therefore  at 
present  the  vernal  equinox  opens  in  Aries  instead  of  Taurus,  as 
was  then  the  case. 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  285 

and  most  extensive  -import  of  the  term.     The  sun 
and  moon,  and  the  seven  fire-altars,  designating  the 
tccen  planets,  as  defined  by  the  ancients,  are  emble- 
matical of  their  solar  svstem.     The  dos*  crazing  at 
the  expiring  victim,  is  a  concomitance  of  the  good 
spirit,  or  the  world  contemplated  as  agathodaimon : 
the  dog  of  hope  and  consolation,  which  reminds  the 
dying  world-beast  of  Tashter  and  regeneration,  after 
the  accomplishment   of  the   great  cosmic  cycle   of 
Twelve  thousand  years.     In  short,  he  is  the  pregnant 
symbol  of   Sirius,  or  the   dog-star,  called   Sothis  — 
the    star   of   salvation,  among   the   Egyptians,   and 
Tashter,  by  the   Persians.     When,  at  the  consum- 
mation   of    all    things,    Sirius    shall    again    cast    a 
glance  at  the  world,  then  will  dawn  the  great  and 
decisive  day  of  palingenesis.     Hence  a  practice  of 
the  ancient  Persians,  observed  at  the  death-bed  of 
their  countrymen,  and  fraught  with  profound  signifi- 
cance, is  rendered  intelligible  to  the    mythological 
student.     As    soon  as  it  was   ascertained  that   the 
spirit  of  the   death-doomed  sufferer  was    about   to 
desert  its   fragile  tenement,  the  friends  of  the  dying 
led  a  dog  to  him,  which  received  a  morsel  of  food 
out  of   his  hand.     This  pathetic    act  was   denomi- 
nated Sag'dia  — -  the  dog  sees  :  a  consoling  pledge  of 
a  hopeful  immortality.     The  dog  eyeing  the  bleed- 
ing, dying  taurus,  expresses  the  same  vaticinal  idea 
cosmically.     Thus  this  animal,  so  despised  among 
the  ancient  Jews  and  the  modern  Turks,  once  figured 
as  the  hallowed  prophet  of  a  happy  future,  and  the 
honored  emblem  of  a  certain  and  blissful  resurrec- 
tion.    Governed  by  a  similar  faith,   and    animated 
with  the  same  irrepressible  desire  of  an  ameliorated 


286  THE   HEATHEN  RELIGION 

immortality,  the  dying  Hindoo,  full  of  faith  and 
piety,  takes  into  his  hand  the  tail  of  a  cow,  in  order 
to  purify  his  soul  before  its  exit  into  another  world.* 
The  Mithriaca,  or  Mithras-worship,  was  of  a  bland, 
cheerful  character,  and  pleasure  and  festivities,  not 
mortification  and  monastic  austerity,  marked  the 
genial  spirit  by  which  it  was  animated.  From 
Persia,  as  its  focal  centre,  it  spread  to  Armenia, 
Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Cilicia,  Greece  —  as  has  been 
already  stated  —  Rome,  and  even  Germany.  Nay, 
it  seems  from  Humboldt's  "  Pittoresken  Ansichten- 
der  Cordilleren,"  that  Mithras  was  not  unknown  in 
the  halls  and  temples  of  the  Montezumas.  "  It  also 
appears,"  thus  writes  this  distinguished  German 
scholar,  "that  the  Mexican  Tonatiuh  is  identical 
both  with  the  Krischna  of  the  Hindoos,  as  he  is  cele- 
brated in  song  in  the  Bhagavata  Purana,  and  the 

*  The  cow  is  employed  for  this  purpose  instead  of  the  ox, 
probably  because  she  is  of  a  more  gentle  disposition,  and  there- 
fore more  tractable.  The  ox,  properly  speaking  the  bull,  as 
the  zodiacal  sign  in  which  the  great  year  began,  is  the  proper 
emblem  of  a  life  to  come,  and  also  a  means  of  purification ;  for, 
regarded  as  the  sun  in  the  vernal  equinox,  he  frees  nature  from 
the  hurtful  influences  and  dreary  phenomena  of  the  winter  season. 
How  important  a  part  the  dog  played  in  the  momentous  dogmas 
of  death  and  immortality,  is  seen  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
fac-simile  of  a  great  many  dogs  is  sculptured  on  the  mortuary 
monument  of  Darius  Hystaspes.  In  Greece,  also,  canine  lustra- 
tions were  devoutly  practised,  as  it  appears  from  Plutarch,  who, 
speaking  of  the  festival  of  the  Lupercalia,  celebrated  on  the  elev- 
enth of  February,  in  honor  of  Pan,  adds :  "  As  to  the  dog,  if  this 
be  a  feast  of  lustration  —  it  was,  man  of  Chreronea  !  we  may  sup- 
pose it  is  sacrificed,  in  order  to  be  used  in  purifying;  for  the 
Greeks,  in  their  purifications,  make  use  of  dogs,  and  perform  the 
ceremonies  which  they  call  PeriskulaJcismoi."  —  Langhorne. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  287 

Mithras  of  the  Persians."     The  Persians  celebrated 
a  splendid  festival  in  honor  of  Mithras  on  the  first 
day  succeeding  the  winter  solstice,  called  Mirrhagan, 
or  Mirgan,  derived  nominally  from  Mihr  —  the  sun, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  commemorate  the  birth 
of  Mithras,  or  the  return  of  the  god  of  day  to  the 
northern   hemisphere.      In    Rome,    the    seven-hilled 
mistress  of  the  world,  the  same  festival  was  observed 
on  the  eighth  of  the  calends  of  January,  or  the  twen- 
ty-fifth of  December,  under  the  name  of  Natalis  solis 
Livicti :  a  day  of  universal  rejoicing,  illustrated  by 
illuminations  and  public  games.     Under  the  observ- 
ance of  various  imposing   and  solemn  ceremonies, 
the  people  sallied  forth  into  open  space,  when  they 
fixedly  gazed  up  towards  heaven,  realizing  and  in- 
dexing the  great  event.     With  the  eagle  and  stand- 
ards of  the  Roman  legions,  the  Mithriaca  were  in- 
troduced into    the    bogs    and    forests    of   Germany. 
According  to  Sattler's  "  Geschichte  des  Herzogthums 
Wirtemberg,"    some    hieroglyphical   remains    attest 
the  immigration   of  the    Persian    god  to  Fehlbach, 
where  a  stone  has  been  found  bearing  the  head  of 
an  ox,  and  in  a  different  part  of  the  kingdom  an- 
other,   containing    the    inscription    of    Soli    invicto 
Mithrce.     At  Ladenburg,  anciently  known  as'  Lupo- 
dunum,  and  situated  on  the  Neckar,  Mithras  could 
boast  of  adorers,  and  glory  in  the   symbols  of  his 
worship  and  of  his  divinity.     A  relief  found  there, 
represents  the  tauris-sacrifice  under  rather  unusual 
accompaniments,  indicative  of  an  alliance  of  Magi- 
anism  with  Sabazianism,  or  the  orgies  of  the  Thracian 
Bacchus.     Mithras  is  likewise  known  as  the  triplex, 
in  allusion  to  the  ancient  division  of  the  year  into 


288  THE   HEATHEN   EELIGION 

three  seasons.  In  more  recent  times,  a  square  or  a 
circle  divided  into  four  segments,  and  intended  as  a 
symbol  of  Mithras,  is  supposed  to  have  signified 
the  four  seasons,  which  are  now  recognized  in  the 
temperate  zone :  some  authors  make  it  denotive  of 
the  four  elements ;  and  I  add  that  it  may  at  the 
same  time  have  implied  the  quadrifid  division  of  the 
earth  by  its  pole  and  equator.  To  Mithras,  as  the 
prolific  source  of  generation,  the  trigon  —  the  em- 
blem of  fruitfulness,  was  sacred.  Its  origin  is  to  be 
sought  in  the  celebrated  phallus,  so  frequently  con- 
demned, and  so  seldom  understood.  It  denotes  the 
simulacrum,  ligneum  membri  virilis,  which  Isis,  after 
the  murder  of  Osiris,  unable  to  recover  the  real 
organ  among  the  mangled  and  scattered  remains  of 
her  unfortunate  husband,  with  great  skill  and  mag- 
nanimity substituted  in  its  place.  A  representation 
of  it  made  of  wood,  was  the  phallus,  which  was 
carried  in  procession  during  the  sacred  festivals  in- 
stituted in  honor  of  Osiris.  The  people  looked  upon 
it  as  the  emblem  of  fecundity,  and  the  mention  of  it 
among  the  ancients,  never  conveyed  any  impure 
thought  or  lascivious  reflection.  The  festivals  of 
the  phallus  were  imitated  by  the  Greeks,  and  intro- 
duced into  other  parts  of  Europe  by  the  Athenians, 
who  made  the  phallus-procession  a  part  of  the 
celebration  of  the  Dionysia  of  the  god  of  wine. 

The  lions  with  the  attributes  of  Mithras  and  Mi- 
tra- Venus,  appearing  in  relief  on  both  sides  of  the 
gate-pillar  of  Micenae,  a  town  of  Argolis  in  Pelo- 
ponnesus, denote  the  active  and  passive  state  of 
nature  during  the  time  when  the  sun  is  in  Leo,  — 
now    Cancer,  —  the   period   of   the   year   at   which 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  289 

the  fiery  god  penetrates  with  his  glowing  rays  both 
the  solid  earth  and  the  fluid  abyss  of  the  ocean. 
The  pillar  itself  is  a  symbol  of  Mithras  regarded 
as  the  sun,  or  rather  as  the  genius  and  warder  of 
the  solar  orb.  Obelisks,  the  expressive  types  of  the 
sun's  rays,  were  sacred  to  him.  Finally,  the  lion 
figuring  in  isolated  majesty  among  his  insignia,  im- 
plies the  sun  in  its  culmination,  and  the  empyrean 
fires  of  the  celestial  world. 


25 


SECTION  II. 

VESTA,  HER  FIRES  AND  PRIESTESSES;  ZEUS,  OR  JUPITER. 


CHAPTER  I. 


VESTA,    TIER    FIRES    AND    PRIESTESSES. 

Vest  A  is  the  Latin,  and  Hestia,  derived  from 
Estia,  the  Greek  appellation  of  the  glowing  goddess, 
who  is  the  personification  of  the  inextinguishable 
fires,  hidden  in  the  centre  of  the  terrestrial  and  the 
supernal  worlds.*  To  this  goddess  the  pure,  bright, 
igneous  body  known  as  fire,  is  preeminently  sacred. 

*  This  fire-goddess  being  denominated  Hestia,  or  Vesta,  is  thus 
explained  by  Cicero :  "  Vis  autem  ejus  ad  aras  et  focos  pertinct." 
Other  authors  make  her  synonymous  with  the  earth,  and  thus  ac- 
count for  her  name :  "  Quod  plantis  frugibusque  terra  vestiatur." 
The  Pythagoreans  called  the  central  fires  of  the  ■world  Vesta, 
Hestia,  or  Monas ;  and  hence  Vesta  is  the  fire  of  the  earth,  the 
fire  of  every  planetary  orb,  the  fire  of  the  universe :  a  small  god- 
dess in  her  restricted  sphere  among  mankind ;  a  supremely  great 
divinity  in  respect  to  her  vast,  mundane  empire.  There  is  a  re- 
markable coincidence  of  sound  and  meaning  between  the  Hebrew 
Asch,  the  Greek  Estia  and  Hephaistos,  the  Latin  Vesta,  and  the 
German  Esse,  and  Asche,  terms  winch  all  signify  fire,  or  are  pri- 
marily associated  with  the  idea  of  heat  —  aistas. 
(290) 


THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,    ETC.  291 

In  honor  of  her,  it  is  kindled  upon  her  domestic 
altar,  the  hearth,  and  she  requires  it  as  the  duty, 
while  she  makes  it  the  interest  of  man,  to  guard  and 
cherish  it  as  the  surest  pledge  of  his  weal.  As  this 
potent  fire-divinity,  though  unseen,  makes  herself 
felt  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference  of  the 
earth ;  so  by  a  gentle  and  benignant  sway,  she  dif- 
fuses blessings  and  happiness  from  her  genial 
hearth-fires  through  the  human  domicil.  In  her 
highest  and  purest  attributes,  Vesta  is  tantamount 
to  ignis,  or  fire,  regarded  in  its  passivity,  or  recipient 
qualities ;  and  she  is  therefore  the  negative  pole  in 
electricity.  There  is,  properly  speaking,  but  one 
Vesta.  Considered  as  the  mother  of  the  gods,  the 
children  claiming  her  maternity  as  her  first-born  are 
Saturn  and  Rhea ;  but  contemplated  as  the  goddess 
of  fire  and  the  patroness  of  the  vestal  virgins,  she  is 
the  daughter  of  her  own  children,  Saturn  and  Rhea. 
This  is  a  species  of  theogony  which,  I  confess, 
sounds  very  enigmatically ;  and  it  seems  as  if  a 
Samson  only,  with  his  eyes  and  hair  all  sound  and 
fully  developed,  could  solve  it.  It  will  appear  intel- 
ligibly enough,  however,  if  we  contemplate  Vesta  as 
the  prima  materia  of  the  world,  in  which  case  sjie  is 
necessarily  the  mother  of  Saturn  or  time,  and  of  Rhea 
—  the  flowing  and  humid:  the  type  of  the  chaotic 
waters  that  covered  the  earth,  which,  in  the  language 
of  Scripture,  was  void  and  without  form.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  view  her  as  the  fire-goddess,  she  is  the 
daughter  of  her  divine  offspring,  Saturn  and  Rhea ; 
or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  the  mundane  fire  in- 
jected into  the  prima  materia  by  the  demiurgus,  or 
creator  of  the  world.     Vesta  glories  in  the  flattering 


292  THE   HEATHEX   RELIGION 

title  of  wife  of  the  fiery  Zeus,  the  mighty  architect 
of  the  universe,  and  she  sympathizes  matrikos  —  ma- 
ternally, in  the  production  of  the  universe,  as  Zeus 
does  patrikos  —  paternally.  Notwithstanding  her 
maternal  and  connubial  relations,  she  has  preserved 
inviolate  her  virginity,  though  as  the  divinity  who 
bears  the  mundane  fire  in  her  capacious  womb,  she 
is  the  secondary  cause  of  all  substantiality.  This 
immaculate  goddess  occupied  a  preeminent  rank 
among  the  Penates,  or  household  deities  of  the  Ro- 
mans, who  on  this  account  conferred  upon  her  the 
fond  and  endearing  appellation  of  JIater,  or  mother. 
As  her  principal  seat  of  empire  among  mankind,  the 
hearth-fire  was  not  only  sacred  to  her,  but  the  domes- 
tic fireside,  as  the  family  altar,  or  sanctum  sanctorum 
of  the  domicil,  was  deemed  a  holy  place,  which  secured 
the  inestimable  privileges  of  asylum  and  inviolable 
protection  to  the  wretched.  So  deeply  was  she  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  the  hearth,  its  fires,  and 
its  benign  influence  on  individuals  and  families,  and 
so  anxiously  was  she  concerned  to  perpetuate  them 
in  their  unimpaired  integrity,  that  upon  her  solicita- 
tion her  brother  Jupiter,  under  the  appropriate  name 
of  Zeus  Hephaistos,  gallantly  assumed  the  defence 
of  her  domestic  rites  and  institutions.  With  her  he 
is  therefore  frequently  invoked  in  the  stipulation  of 
family  and  municipal  compacts.  In  her  august 
name,  oaths  were  preferably  taken,  and  an  oath  pro- 
nounced in  the  name  of  Vesta,  was  universally 
esteemed  the  most  solemn,  and  held  to  be  abso- 
lutely irrevocable.  As  Vesta  was  the  tutelar  deity 
of  the  fireside,  so  she  revealed  herself  as  the  efficient 
centre  of  protection  to  society  at  large,  thus  includ- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  293 

ing  under  her  divine  segis,  the  family,  the  city,  and 
the  State.  The  bright,  sacred  flame  that  burned  in 
honor  of  her  name  upon  the  city-hearth,  was  the 
municipal  offering  of  all  the  private  hearths,  and  it 
was  fanned  and  nourished  in  an  appropriate  edifice, 
termed  the  Prytaneum,  where  in  the  name  of  the 
city,  the  magistrates  known  as  the  Prytanes,  brought 
suitable  offerings  to  the  venerated  guardian-goddess. 
The  fire-service  observed  in  honor  of  Vesta,  the 
pyric  mother,  was  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Prytanistis.  It  is  presumed,  that  for  a  long  time  the 
sacred  fire  was  Vesta's  only  offering,  though  it  was 
an  ancient  custom  to  strew  green  plants  upon  her 
altar:  first,  to  manifest  an  especial  veneration  for 
her  name ;  and  next,  to  attest  a  proper  respect  for 
the  rest  of  the  gods.  In  Rome,  a  libation  of  wine 
was  made  to  her  as  well  as  to  Janus  and  the  Lares. 
Instead  of  green  herbs,  it  became  the  practice  at  a 
later  period  to  scatter  incense  upon  her  altars,  and  at 
last  even  victims  were  immolated  to  her  no  less 
than  to  the  other  divinities.  Since  whatever  is 
offered  in  sacrifice,  springs  from  the  earth  —  the 
mother  of  all  things,  warmed,  invigorated,  and  ma- 
tured by  Vesta's  plastic  fire,  the  first  and  last  obla- 
tion in  all  sacrificial  rites,  and  the  introductory  and 
concluding  prayer  in  every  act  of  worship,  were  pre- 
ferred to  her  as  a  mark  of  peculiar  distinction,  and 
the  pleasing  evidence  of  an  unwavering  confidence. 
In  the  temple  of  Vesta  at  Rome,  was  deposited  the 
celebrated  Palladium,  or  statue  of  Pallas,  the  pledge 
of  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  the  empire.  In  the 
most  remote  periods  of  Vesta-worship,  the  bread  of 
the  people  it  is  stated  was  prepared  in  her  temples, 

25*     . 


294  THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 

while  to  the  vestals  the  care  of  the  public  fountains 
was  intrusted.  Fire,  water,  and  bread  under  the 
supervision  of  these  fire-priestesses,  are  significant 
facts !  Fire,  the  active,  generative  principle  in  na- 
ture;  water,  the  passive  recipient  —  the  mater- 
Vesta,  both  uniting,  procreate  or  produce  food  — 
bread,  for  man!  The  annual  festival  of  Vesta  in 
Rome,  occurred  in  the  glowing  month  of  June,  and 
was  accompanied  by  a  procession  in  which  the  ass, 
usually  appropriated  to  the  train  of  Cybele,  figured, 
either  on  account  of  some  pyric  quality,  or  because, 
as  mythic  record  informs  us,  he  once  rendered  im- 
portant service  to  the  goddess.  It  is  proper  to 
remark,  that  there  is  considerable  identity  in  the 
significance,  the  functions,  and  the  character  of 
Vesta  and  many  of  the  other  goddesses,  especially 
Mitra  and  Minerva,  and  that  such  must  necessarily  be 
the  case,  as  they  are  all  more  or  less,  though  under 
different  appellations  and  diversified  rites,  the  per- 
sonifications of  the  passive,  and  the  containers  of 
the  active,  principles  of  creation.  Flourishing  in 
the  full  majesty  of  a  superior  divinity,  Vesta  appears 
in  a  long,  flowing  robe,  with  a  veil  over  her  face,  a 
floral  crown  upon  her  head,  a  lamp  in  one  hand,  and 
a  javelin,  a  palladium,  or  a  drum,  the  latter  a  sym- 
bol of  the  boisterous  winds  in  the  bosom  of  the 
earth,  in  the  other.  The  mythic  history  of  Vesta  is 
comparatively  circumscribed.  Besides,  she  cannot 
boast  of  a  great  many  symbols,  while  her  temples 
are  small,  inornate  structures.  The  temples  of 
Vesta  were  of  a  round  form  —  to  represent  the  figure 
of  the  earth,  say  some ;  while  others  are  of  opinion 
that  this  rotund  style   of  architecture  denoted  the 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  295 

centre  of  the  universe,  as  the  supreme  seat  of  sway 
of  the  fervid  goddess.  Plutarch,  writing  upon  this 
subject,  thus  expresses  himself:  "  It  is  also  said  that 
Numa  built  the  temple  of  Vesta  where  the  perpetual 
fire  was  to  be  kept,  in  an  orbicular  form,  not  intend- 
ing to  represent  the  figure  of  the  earth,  as  if  that 
was  meant  by  Vesta,  but  the  frame  of  the  universe, 
in  the  centre  of  which  the  Pythagoreans  place  the 
element  of  fire,  and  give  it  the  name  of  Vesta  and 
Unity.  The  earth  they  suppose  not  to  be  without 
motion,  nor  situated  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  but 
to  make  its  revolution  round  the  sphere  of  fire,  being 
neither  one  of  the  most  valuable  nor  principal  parts 
of  the  great  machine.  Plato,  too,  in  his  old  age,  is 
reported  to  have  been  of  the  same  opinion,  assigning 
the  earth  a  different  situation  from  the  centre,  and 
leaving  that  as  the  place  of  honor,  to  a  nobler  ele- 
ment." * 

The  statues  of  Vesta  before  which  the  devout 
Romans  daily  sacrificed  to  the  goddess,  were  placed 
before  the  doors  of  their  houses,  and  these  conse- 
crated places  of  Vesta- worship  were  called*  vestibular 
from  the  name  of  the  divinity  to  whose  service  they 
were  sacred.     Like  Athena,  Vesta  was  admeta,  en- 


*  In  two  notes  on  this  passage,  Langhorne,  the  translator  of 
Plutarch,  admits,  first,  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  Philolauas  and 
other  Pythagoreans,  that  the  element  of  fire  was  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  universe,  but  insists  that  according  to  Diogenes  La- 
ertius,  Pythagoras  himself  held  the  earth  to  be  the  centre.  Sec- 
ondly, he  says,  "  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  L.  ii.,  is  of  opinion, 
and  probably  he  is  right,  that  Numa  did  build  the  temple  of  Vesta 
in  a  round  form,  to  represent  the  figure  of  the  earth,  for  by  Vesta 
they  meant  the  earth." 


296  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

joying  perpetual  juvenility,  and  therefore  to  her  as 
well  as  to  the  former,  the  yearly  heifer  denominated 
juvenca,  was  dedicated.  Vesta,  we  are  told  by  Por- 
phyrius,  had  statues  in  Greece  which  proclaimed  her 
to  her  tasteful  votaries  in  the  charming  attributes  of 
a  fair  virgin  ;  but  as  she  contained  within  her  the 
principles  of  fructification,  the  primordial  fire,  lodged 
in  her  as  the  impregnated  mundane  mother,  she  was 
represented  with  dependent  mamma?.  She  appears, 
too,  on  coins,  having  the  back  part  of  the  head 
veiled,  a  key,  or  the  palladium,  in  one  hand,  and  a 
wand  in  the  other.  Sometimes  the  inscription  of 
the  venerable  title  Vesta- Mater,  accompanies  these 
numismatico-hieroglyphical  devices.  An  impression 
of  a  coin,  procured  by  the  archaeological  Spanheim, 
exhibits  the  fire-goddess  sitting  in  a  little  temple, 
while  an  altar  before  her  sends  forth  a  bright  flame, 
which  is  assiduously  nourished  and  regulated  by  the 
officiating  Vestals.  A  sceptre  mounted  by  a  cross, 
is  also  one  of  Vesta's  symbols,  and  the  undoubted 
evidence  of  her  supreme  authority  and  queenly  dig- 
nity. 

The  Platonic  philosophers  graduated  their  ideas 
of  Vesta  to  a  truly  Kantian  transcendentalism.  In 
his  theory  of  the  earth,  Plotinus  assumes  the  position 
that  Vesta  is  the  intelligence,  the  soul  or  nous  of  the 
earth,  and  Demeter  the  spirit.  Proclus,  in  his  com- 
mentary on  the  Cratylus  of  Plato,  compares  Vesta 
with  Chthonia  ;  that  is,  Terra  or  Hera :  the  same  as 
Demeter  or  Ceres,  and  signifying  the  earth,  and 
says  that  in  the  work  of  creation,  she  supplies  the 
principles  of  fixation,  or  the  indissoluble  reality  of 
things ;  while  Chthonia,  in  her  primordial  or  chaotic 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  297 

state,  it  is  presumed  contributes  as  her  share  the 
conditions  of  form  and  the  laws  of  affinity.*  The 
same  philosophers  assert  that  the  planetary  world  is 
indebted  to  Vesta  for  its  permanent  positions,  its 
unalterable  motions,  and  its  fixed  poles  and  centres. 
According  to  these  doctrines  of  natural  philosophy, 
Vesta  is  not  an  entity,  but  an  abstraction.  I  add, 
in  conclusion,  that  in  relation  to  the  earth,  Vesta 
personates  its  fires,  and  is  the  body  in  which  they 
reside ;  and  that  therefore  she  is  both  Vesta  and 
Demeter,  both  fire  and  earth.  This  fire  is  the  mas- 
culine element  of  creation,  communicated  to  her 
keeping  as  the  wife  of  Zeus,  the  demiurgus  or  archi- 
tect of  the  universe. 

The  immaculate  priestesses  of  Vesta,  known  as 
the  Vestal  virgins,  next  -claim  our  attention.  The 
introduction  of  the  sacred  and  perpetual  fire  at 
Rome,  is  traced  back  by  some  authors  to  the  martial 
founder  of  Rome;  by  others,  to  Numa  Pompilius, 
his  pious'  and  illustrious  successor.  It  is  certain 
that  prior  to  either  of  these  dates  Vestal  virgins  ex- 
isted at  Alba,  and  that  the  mother  of  Romulus  was 
one  of  their  number.  Perpetual  fires  burned  upon 
the  altars  of  many  of  the  nations  of  antiquity, 
among  whom  we  may  enumerate  the  Hindoos,  the 


*  Chthonia,  strictly  speaking,  denotes  the  earth  in  its  chaotic 
state.  Here  or  Hera,  signifying  Herrin,  or  mistress,  is  one  of  the 
titles  of  Juno ;  but  Here  or  Era,  in  Greek,  means  also  the  earth, 
and  is  therefore  synonymous  with  Chthonia ;  with  the  Airtha  of 
the  ancient  Goths;  the  Anglo-Saxon  Eorthe,  Ertha,  Hertha ;  the 
German  Erde ;  the  English  earth  ;  the  Danish  Jord,  etc.  Agree- 
ably to  the  Latin  orthography,  Tacitus  resolved  these  Teutonic 
synonyms  into  Herthus,  the  Frigga  of  the  Scandinavians. 


298  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Persians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Ro- 
mans. They  were  derived  from  the  pure  flames  of 
the  Vestal  lamps,  which  in  Rome,  were  earthen  ves- 
sels suspended  in  the  air.*  In  Rome  virgins  only, 
in  Greece,  also,  chaste  widows,  passed  the  age  of 
childbearing,  could  aspire  or  deserve  to  be  ranked 
among  the  distinguished  officiants  of  Vesta.  In 
respect  to  the  former,  we  are  expressly  told  that  it 
was  required  of  them  that  they  should  be  of  a  good 
family,  and  without  blemish  or  deformity  in  any 
part  of  their  bodies.  For  the  space  of  thirty  years 
they  had  to  observe  the  most  rigid  continence.  The 
first  decade  of  this  prescribed  term  of  service,  they 
spent  in  learning  the  duties  of  the  order ;  the  second 
was  employed  in  discharging  them  with  a  suitable 
decorum  and  sanctity  ;  and  the  last  they  devoted 
to  the  instruction  of  those  who  had  entered  the  no- 
vitiate. At  the  expiration  of  thirty  years,  they  were 
permitted  to  marry,  but  if  they  still  preferred  celi- 
bacy, they  ended  their  days  in  ministering  to  the 
rest  of  the  Vestals.  Few  of  the  Vestals  could  be 
accused  or  proved  guilty  of  the  crime  of  violated 
chastity,  and  during  the  period  of  more  than  one 
thousand  years,  which  marked  the  ample  limits  of 
their  existence  —  from  the  reign  of  Numa  to  that  of 

*  Doctor  Ward  mentions  a  fire-god  of  the  Hindoos,  whom  he 
calls  Ungee.  After  having  described  the  personal  appearance  of 
this  refulgent  divinity,  to  whom  belong  a  thousand  streams  of 
glory  issuing  from  his  body,  and  set-en  tongues  of  flame,  he  adds: 
u  Ungee  has  neither  temples  nor  images  consecrated  to  him ;  but 
he  has  a  service  in  the  daily  ceremonies  of  the  Bramhuns ;  and 
one  class  of  his  worshippers,  called ,  Sagniku  Bramhuns,  preserve 
perpetual  f  re,  like  the  vestal  virgins." 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  299 

Theodosius  the  Groat,  who  dared  to  extinguish  the 
celestial  tire  of  Vesta,  and  to  abolish  the  venerable 
and  hallowed  Vestal  institution,  only  eighteen  were 
proved  faithless  to  their  vows,  and  unworthy  of  their 
exalted  vocation.  At  iirst  only  two  virgins,  named 
gania  and  Verania,  were  consecrated  by  Numa 
to  the  Vesta-service*  Subsequently  Canuleia  and 
Tarpeia  were  clothed  with  the  Vestal  functions ; 
and  finally  Servius  Tullius,  the  sixth  king  of  Rome, 
still  further  increased  the  order  by  the  addition  of 
two  more  candidates.  This  number,  writes  Plu- 
tarch, has  continued  to  the  present  time.  The pon- 
tifex  maximus,  the  illustrious  and  powerful  chief  of 
all  the  Bacerdotal  orders,  and  the  interpreter  and 
controller  of  all  sacred  rites,  had  the  supervision  of 
the  Vestal  priestesses.  "If  it  happens,  the  sacred 
lire  by  any  accident  to  be  put  out,"  writes  the  author 
jusi  referred  to,  "as  the  -acred  lamp  is  said  to  have 
been  at  Alliens,  under  the  tyranny  of  Aristion;  at 
Delphi,  when  the  temple  was  burned  by  the  Med' 
and  at  Rome,  in  the  Mithridatic  war,  as  also  in  the 
civil  war.  when  not  only  the  lire  was  extinguished, 
but  the  altar  overturned:  it  is  not  to  be  lighted 
again  from  another  lire,  but  new  tire  is  to  be  gained 
by  drawing  a  pure  and  unpolluted  flame  from  the 
sunbeams.*     They  kindled  it  generally  with  concave 


*  "If  by  any  chance  the  sacred  fire  -was  extinguished,"  writes 
Tooke,  "  all  public  and  private  business  was  interrupted,  and  a 
vacation  proclaimed  till  they  had  expiated  the  unhappy  prodigy 
with  incredible  pains;  and  if  it  appeared  that  the  virgins  were 
the  occasion  of  its  going  out,  by  carelessness,  they  were  severely 
pnnished,  and  sometimes  with  rods." 


300  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

vessels  of  brass,  formed  by  the  conic  section  of  a  rec- 
tangled  triangle,  whose  lines  from  the  circumference 
meet  in  one  central  point,  etc."*  The  privileges 
which  the  Vestals  enjoyed,  and  the  penalties  which 
they  were  liable  to  suffer,  are  thus  described  by 
Tooke  and  Plutarch :  "  For  smaller  offences  these 
virgins  were  punished  with  stripes ;  and  sometimes 
the  pontifex  maximus  gave  them  the  discipline  naked, 
in  some  dark  place,  and  under  the  cover  of  a  veil ; 
but  she  that  broke  her  vow  of  chastity  was  buried 
alive  by  the  Colline  gate.  In  recompense  for  the 
rigorous  discipline  to  which  they  were  subject,  the 
Vestals  enjoyed  extraordinary  privileges  and  respect. 
When  they  went  abroad,  they  had  the  fasces  carried 
before  them,f  and  if  by  accident,  they  met  a  person 
led  to  execution,  his  life  was  granted  him.$  They 
had  the  most  honorable  seat  at  games  and  festivals, 
and  the  consuls  and  magistrates  gave  way  whenever 
they  met  them.  They  were  permitted  to  make  a 
will  during  their  father's  life,  and  to  transact  their 
private  affairs  without  a  guardian,  like  the  mothers 
of  three  children,  etc." 

*  Though  it  should  continue  to  burn  with  undiminished  bright- 
ness,  overj'  year,  on  the  calends  of  March,  the  Vestals  invariably 
renewed  the  sacred  fire  from  the  solar  rays.  —  G. 

|  This  distinguished  honor,  the  Triumvirate  conferred  upon 
them  in  the  year  of  Rome  seven  hundred  and  twelve. —  G. 

%  Plutarch  states  that  in  order  that  the  meeting  might  end  in 
so  happy  a  result  in  respect  to  the  convict,  the  Vestals  had  to  make 
oath  that  it  had  been  really  accidental.  This  statement  militates 
against  the  simple  facts  of  the  case,  as  both  the  Vestals  and  the 
priests  of  Jupiter  were  universally  believed  without  the  solemnity 
of  an  oath. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  301 


CHAPTER  II. 


ZEUS,    OR   JUPITER. 


Philologists  derive  the  name  of  Zeus  from  Dens, 
which,  with  the  hissing  sigma  as  a  prefix,  has  been 
changed  to  Sdeus,  of  which  Zeus  and  Theos  were 
formed.  Zeus,  Zan,  Zen,  are  the  homogeneous  ap- 
pellations under  which  the  ^Eolians,  the  Dorians, 
and  the  Ionians,  in  the  order  here  enumerate^,  re- 
spectively recognized'  and  adored  the  Supreme 
Being.  The  name  Zeus,  according  to  Kanne,  de- 
notes father  of  the  air;  but  it  may  be  more  strictly 
defined  to  be  ether,  or  the  glowing,  generative  air 
itself,  and  derived  from  zed,  to  be  warm  or  hot. 
In  the  second  book  of  his  Georgica,  Virgil,  the 
prince  of  the  Latin  poets,  calls  Jupiter  pater  omnipo- 
tens  a:ther,  and  describes  the  ethereal  god  as  descend- 
ing in  fructifying  showers  into  the  lap  of  his  longing 
spouse,  Juno,  or  the  earth,  when  the  Magnus  —  the 
great  god  iEther,  uniting  himself  with  the  great, 
tellurian  body  of  the  goddess,  nourishes  all  her  off- 
spring. Considering  its  absolute  importance  to  the 
existence  and  well-being  of  all  the  organic  forms  of 
creation,  it  may  be  observed  that  the  poets  indulged 
the  exuberance  of  their  fancy  with  admirable  propriety 
in  personifying  ether  under  the  name  and  with  the 
attributes  of  a  god.*     If,  in   addition  to  these  facts, 

*  Anaxagoras  of  Clazomenia,  the  author  of  the  Homoiomerian 
system  of  philosophy,  taught  that  the  elements  of  all  things  have 
their  source  in  illimitable  ether ;  and  that  there  they  are  gener- 

26 


302  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Zeus  is  still  further  synonymous  with  Theos,  de- 
duced from  theo,  to  put,  constitute,  ordain,  Jupiter 
stands  before  us  as  the  demiurgus  and  governor  of 
the  world ;  and  if  thus  both  zeo  and  theo  unite  in 
forming  the  ample  basis  of  his  divine  significance, 
he  is  e pluribus  unum,  and  therefore  the  greater  god.* 
The  name  Zeus  is  correlative  with  Jove  or  Jupiter  ; 
but  the  popular  and  the  sacerdotal  ideas  of  the  god 
differ  so  materially  that  the  subject  requires  two 
separate  treatises. 


atcd  or  evolved  in  consequence  of  the  variation  of  temperature, 
produced  by  the  laws  of  condensation  or  rarefaction.  This  god, 
too,  was  ethereal,  or  Zeus-like ;  infinite,  the  supreme,  supermun- 
dane Xous ;  and  the  demiurgus  of  the  universe. 

*  This  god  is  evidently  also  called  Zeus  because  he  gives  life 
to  all  —  tozen.  The  name  Dis,  from  din,  he  likewise  bears;  for 
through  him  every  thing  vxists.  It  is  interesting,  and  perhaps 
not  uninstructive,  to  trace  the  cognate  terms,  or,  more  properly 
speaking,  the  same  terms  varied  by  national  orthography,  relating 
to  a  principal  or  the  supreme  God  of  some  of  the  ancient  nations. 
Thus  Zeus,  Sdeus,  Theos,  J>is.  as  we  have  Been,  import  deity,  or 
god,  and  all  designate  the  Hellenic  Jove  or  Jupiter.  This  striking 
similarity  and  application  of  deistie  names  will  still  further  appear 
from  the  following  notice  on  this  subject,  in  the  article  on  Mythol- 
ogy, contained  in  the  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia.  v>  It'  we  are  not 
mistaken,"  writes  the  author,  "  the  appellation  Thaautus,  Thut, 
Thoth,  has  been  transmitted  through  the  ancient  languages  down 
to  modern  times ;  and  may  be  traced  in  the  Theos  of  the  Greek, 
the  Deus  of  the  Romans,  the  German  Theut  or  Tent,  the  French 
Dicu,  and  the  English  Deity." 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  303 

PAR  AGE  Aril  I. 
The  Zeus,  or  Jupiter  of  tlie  people. 

The  popular  creed  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  cele- 
brates Zeus  under  the  threefold  epithet  of  the  Arca- 
dian. ihe  Dodonaean,  and  the  Cretansian  ;  and  the 
vulgar  contemplation  of  the  god  has,  in  some  in- 
stances, so  vitiated  his  divinity,  as  to  confound  it 
with  humanity,  leaving  it  doubtful  to  the  historian 
whether  in  Zeus  he  is  to  record  the  character  and 
exploits  of  a  hero  or  of  a  god.  Gradual  develop- 
ment, is  a  distinguishing  trait  of  the  human  mind, 
and  the  various  stages  of  the  religious  culture  of  the 
ancients,  from  the  dim,  crude  notions  of  barbarians 
to  the  metaphysical  abstractions  of  the  priests  and 
philosophers,  are  strikiifgly  illustrated  in  the  dogmas 
of  their  national  divinities,  especially  in  that  of  Zeus 
and  Athena- Minerva  among  the  Greeks.  In  the 
picture  which  is  here  attempted  to  be  drawn  of  the 
Arcadian  Jupiter,  the  primitive  Pelasgic  god  is  still 
plainly  recognized,  and  his  ritual  service,  strongly 
tinctured  and  vividly  colored  by  the  pastoral  sim- 
plicity and  rude  manners  of  his  votaries,  is  emi- 
nently significant  of  the  physical  features  of  that 
wild  and  rugged  country  :  it  is  the  Jupiter  Akrios, 
the  god  of  the  heights  and  of  the  mountains;  the 
tutelar  divinity  of  nomades  and  hunters. 

At  a  remote  period  of  antiquity,  a  colony  from 
Egypt  or  Phoenicia  immigrated  into  that  part  of  the 
Grecian  Peloponnesus  known  as  Arcadia — thus 
named,  as  mythic  history  informs  us,  after  Areas, 
the  son  of  Jupiter,  and  introduced  among  its  inhab- 


304  TIIE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

itants  a  higher  state  of  civilization,  and  more  re- 
fined conceptions  of  religion  and  of  the  gods. 
The  Arcadian  Jupiter  was  qualified  by  the  epithet 
Lyccius,  which  has  a  hieroglyphical  origin  and  im- 
port, and  its  elucidation  is  therefore  to  be  sought  in 
the  Egyptian  symbology  of  the  god.  Among  the 
contemplative  people  of  the  Nile,  the  wolf  was  one 
of  the  symbols  of  light,  and  as  such  it  appears  upon 
the  mummv-covers  as  the  psycha-pompus  or  con- 
duetor  of  the  departed  souls,  and  as  the  sacred 
emblem  both  of  Osiris,  the  lord  of  the  dead,  and  of 
Horus,  the  fair  and  resplendent  god  of  light. 

Jupiter  Lydius  presents  himself  in  connection 
with  a  personage  who  bears  a  name  similar  to  his 
own  —  Lyceum,  the  son  of  Pelasgns,  and  king  of 
Arcadia,  who,  as  it  appears  from  Pausanias,  pol- 
luted the  altar  of  Zeus  with  the  blood  of  a  child, 
and  whose  merited  punishment  on  account  of  so 
heinous  a  deed,  was  his  conversion  into  a  wolf  by 
the  justly  offended  god.  From  the  date  of  this 
tragic  event,  a  rumor  was  rife  that  the  eating  of 
human  flesh  inevitably  resulted  in  a  like  metamor- 
phosis. Wide  spread  vestiges  of  a  primeval  popular 
creed,  mixed  up  with  significant  names,  indicative 
of  a  close  connection  with  the  wolf,  and  interspersed 
with  reminiscences  of  annual  pastoral  festivals,  fre- 
quently obtrude  themselves  upon  the  attention  at 
this  stage  of  our  investigations  of  the  mythic  history 
of  Jupiter.  "  If  I  may  be  allowed  so  to  express 
myself,"  writes  Creuzer,  "  the  primary  idea  of  this 
species  of  religious  faith  oscillates  between  the  dog 
and  the  wolf — entre  chien  ct  Jovp;  that  is,  the  pas- 
toral anniversary  celebrations  already  noticed,  were 


IN   I!         ,  Mr.OLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  305 

festivals  observed  at  thai  Beason  of  the  year  when 
lighl  emerges  from  darkness,  or  vernal  festivals, 
during  which  the  yeai  was  depurated  or  cleansed  of 
winter  pollutions,  and  the  guill  of  moral  defile- 
ment expiated.  They  were  essentially  festivals  oi 
purgation,  upon  which  the  ancient  Pelasgians  and 
Arcadians  as  well  as  the  Romans,  passed  through  a 
conversion  from  darkness  to  light.  In  short)  in  the 
mild  light  of  Bpring,  when  the  .-tern  influences  of 
winter  began  to  abate,  the  .-ins  of  the  old  year  and 
of  the  past  life  generally  were  sought  to  be  obliter- 
ated by  atonement  It  was  then  thai  the  wolf,  as 
the  natural  enemy  of  the  flock,  was  contrasted  both 
in  symbol  and  in  song,  with  the  dog,  its  friend  and 
prcteetor:  and  thai  the  brutal  practice  ofthe  savage 

and  wolflike  people,  who  hesitated  not  to  oiler  hu- 
man sacrifice  publicly  reprobated  as  a  warning 
to  those  rude  and  uncultivated  minds,  whose  ;inimal 
propensities  might  prompt  them  to  commit  so 
glaring   an   outrage,     /ens   could  contemplate  the 

Wolfish  practice  of  immolating  human  victims  with 
abhorrence  only;  and  hence  he  mid  his  priests  were 
the  restrainers  of  the  malignanl  wolf — the  Lukder- 
g-oi  or  Li'/»  ni.' 

This  wolf-god,  wolf-Osiris,  wolf-Horus,  the  Luko- 
ergos,  is  now  Zeus-Akrios,  or,  which  i.-  the  same 
thing,  Jupiter  is  Amnion;  that  is,  Jupiter  clothed  in 
the  semblance  of  the  ram,  is  contemplated  as  occu- 


*  The  Luperealian   festival   of  the  :<nn.-nt    Romans,  annually 
observed   on   Hie  fifteenth  of  February,  at  the  fool    of  Mourn* 

Avrntin.',  and  MCred  to  Pan  or  Jupiter,  had  its  origin  in  this  cy- 
cle of  religious  ideas  and  festive  rites.  —  G. 

26* 


306  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

pying  the  summits  of  the  mountains  and  of  the 
heavens,  and  as  the  god  of  light  and  of  the  herds. 
Considered  in  this  point  of  view,  Jupiter,  the  more 
developed  and  perfect  Pan,  still  shares  the  fate  and 
participates  the  honors  of  Pan,  his  plebeian  original, 
and  is  accordingly  grouped  with  him  agreeably  to 
the  laws  or  the  whim  of  hieroglyphical  composition. 
As  late  as  the  second  century,  Pausanius  traced  the 
existence  of  hieroglyphical  devices,  designed  to 
symbolize  Pan  or  Zeus-Lycaus.  At  Megalopolis 
he  sa,w  upon  a  tablet  the  representations  of  a  num- 
ber of  Arcadian  nymphs ;  as,  Nais  bearing  the  in- 
fant Zeus  upon  her  bosom ;  Anthracia,  who  held  a 
torch ;  and  Agno,  who  bore  a  water-jug  in  one  hand 
and  a  vase  in  the  other.  Two  other  nymphs,  Ar- 
chiroe  and  Myrtoessa,  figured  in  the  scene,  carrying 
vessels  in  their  hands  from  which  flowed  streams  of 
limpid  water.  In  another  temple,  the  curious  histo- 
rian saw  the  Polycletian  Zeus,  the  Zeus  Philios,  or 
the  friendly,  who  exactly  resembled  Bacchus  with 
high  buskins ;  the  wine-cup  in  one  hand,  and  the 
thyrsus,  upon  which  perched  an  eagle,  in  the  other. 
But  for  the  fact  that  the  bird  of  heaven  constituted 
one  of  the  symbols  of  the  god,  Pausanius  de- 
clares he  should  have  taken  Zeus  to  be  Dionysus 
or  Bacchus :  a  perplexity  which  must  naturally 
spring  up  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  not  ac- 
quainted with  the  fact  that  Zeus  and  Bacchus  stood 
related  to  each  other  as  sire  and  son !  The  nymphian 
tableau  just  noticed,  in  which  Zeus  appears  lying  in 
the  bosom  of  Nais,  Anthracia  —  the  dark,  bearing  a 
torch  before  him,  while  Agno  carries  after  him  the 
lustral  water,  the  expressive  symbol  of  the  Lycaic 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  307 

initiation  and  consecration,  is  of  hieroglyphical  im- 
port, and  shows  that  beside  the  rude  modes  of  wor- 
ship once  prevalent  in  the  country  of  the  Pelasgi, 
also  a  purer  form  of  religion  existed ;  that  mysteries 
had  been  founded  there  at  an  early  period  of  its 
history,  hi  which  purification  by  means  of  fire  and 
water  was  sought  to  be  accomplished ;  and  that,  the 
aspirants  of  a  nobler  and  holier  life  being  thus  pre- 
pared to  renew  their  career  under  more  genial  aus- 
pices, a  solemn  anointing  and  a  new  dedication  took 
place  in  the  name  of  the  god  of  the  heights  —  Jupiter 
Amnion,  who  sent  down  lightning  from  heaven  ; 
fructified  the  earth;  and  was  everywhere  active, 
under  the  compound  appellations  of  Zeus-Dionysus, 
Zeus-Philios  —  the  friendly,  and  Zeus-Meilichios  — 
the  expiating.  Hence  we  have  here  a  Phoenico- 
Egyptian  metathesis,  and  both  Zeus  with  the  ram's 
horns,  or  Jupiter- Ammon,  and  Horus  or  Osiris,  are 
reflected  from  this  symbolical  design ;  and  Zeus, 
conformably  to  the  soaring  genius  of  this  mythic 
creation,  commends  himself  to  our  attention  as  the 
son  of  the  celestial  light —  Cceli  or  JEtheris  films. 
The  idea  involved  in  Zeus,  or  Jupiter,  thus  portrayed, 
is  that  of  universal  nature  resolved  into  the  active, 
cosmic  principles  in  the  air,  earth,  water,  light,  and 
fire.  Besides,  the  representation  of  the  god,  as  de- 
lineated and  grouped  by  the  nascent,  artistic  skill  of 
the  Arcadians,  or  rather  their  priests,  who,  if  they  did 
not  execute  the  design,  at  least  devised  and  superin- 
tended it,  premises  a  state  of  religion  anterior  to 
Homer;  and  hence  the  symbolical  tableaux,  de- 
scribed by  the  Greek  historian,  and  here  passed  in 
review  before  us  —  implying  incipient,   or    at   any 


308  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

rate,  imperfect  theological  ideas  and  inferior  efforts 
of  the  hieroglyphical  art,  betray  earlier  stages  of  civil- 
ization, while  they  display  the  bright  dawn  of  promise 
in  religious  development.  Two  gods,  Zeus  and 
Dionysus,  are  still  united  in  one  person  or  recipro- 
cate identity.  It  was  only  after  Homer  and  Hesiod 
had  defined  the  rank  and  described  the  functions  of 
the  numerous  corps  of  illustrious  inhabitants  of 
Olympus,  that  their  personalities  stood  out  in  bold 
relief;  and  then,  too,  it  was  that  Zeus^  and  Dio- 
nysus—  Bacchus,  were  separated  into  two  distinct 
divinities,  and  poetically  as  well  as  logically  con- 
trasted. 

The  Dodonaean  Jupiter  derived  his  cognomen 
from  Dodona,  a  town  of  Thesprotia,  in  Epirus  or 
Thessaly,  in  the  vicinity  of  which  was  a  celebrated 
oracle  that  illustrated  the  name  and  perpetuated  the 
power  of  the  god.  We  have  already  noticed  the 
account  which  Herodotus  has  given  of  the  founda- 
tion  and  importance   of  this  renowned  institution. 

Treating  of  the  intention  of  Ulysses  to  consult 
the  Dodonaean  oracle  in  respect  to  the  J^est  means 
and  most  suitable  style  of  his  return  to  Ithaca, 
Homer  thus  expresses  himself  in  relation  to  this 
ancient  seat  of  inspired  wisdom  :  — 

"  Meantime  he  voyaged  to  explore  the  will 
Of  Jove  on  high  Dodona's  holy  hill, 
What  means  might  best  his  safe  return  avail, 
To  come  in  pomp,  or  bear  a  secret  sail." 

In  the  sixteenth  book  of  the  Iliad,  the  blind  poet 
gives  a  more  prolix  and  graphic  description  of  the 
oracular  god,  his  abode,  his  media  of  communica- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  309 

tion,  and  his  ministers.  The  son  of  Peleus  and 
Thetis  —  Achilles,  the  bravest  of  his  jmartial  com- 
peers, thus  prays  in  behalf  of  his  friend  Patroclus  :  — 

"  O  thou  supreme !  high-throned  all  height  above ! 
O  great  Pelasgie,  Dodonsean  Jove ! 
Who  'midst  surrounding  frosts  and  vapors  chill, 
Presid'st  on  bleak  Dodona's  vocal  hill ; 
Whose  groves  the  Selli,  race  austere !  surround, 
Their  feet  unwashed,  their  slumbers  on  the  ground ; 
Who  hear,  from  rustling  oaks,  thy  dark  decrees, 
And  catch  the  fates,  low  whispered  in  the  breeze."  * 

From  the  concluding  passage  of  the  immortal 
poet,  we  learn  that  the  priests  of  the  Dodonsean 
Jupiter  were  called  Selli,  from  Selloi,  'Elloi,  a  gentile 
noun,  which  defines  and  honors  them  as  the  priest 
of  the  Hellenic  people.  The  manner  in  which  Ju- 
piter communicated  his  oracles,  gives  us  a  key  to 
the  ideas  which  the  Pelasgic  tribes  had  of  the  great 
god  of  nature.  As  Jupiter  gave  oracles  by  means 
of  the  oak,  so  the  oaken  crown  was  deemed  a  fit 
ornament  to  deck  the  majestic  brow  of  the  god,  con- 
templated as  Polieus,  the  king  of  the  city.  The 
origin  of  the  oaken  crown,  as  a  symbol  of  Jupiter, 
is  attributed  by  Plutarch  to  the  admirable  qualities 
of  the  oak.  "  It  is  the  oak,"  says  he,  "  which,  among 
the  wild  trees,  bears  the  finest  fruit,  and  which, 
among  those  that  are  cultivated,  is  the  strongest. 
Its  fruit  has  been  used  as  food,  and  the  honey-dew 
of  its  leaves  drunk  as  mead.  This  sweet  secretion 
of  the  oak  was  personified  under  the  name  of  a 
nymph,  denominated  Melissa.      Meat,  too,  is  indi- 

*  Pope. 


310  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

rectly  furnished,  in  supplying  nourishment  to  rumi- 
nant and  other  quadrupeds  suitable  for  diet,  and  in 
yielding  birdlime,  with  which  the  feathered  tribes 
are  secured,  etc." 

The  esculent  properties  of  the  fruit  of  some  trees ; 
as,  the  qiiercus  esculus,  and  the  many  useful  quali- 
ties of  their  timber,  may  well  entitle  them  to  the 
rank  of  trees  of  life,  and  to  the  distinction  and 
veneration  of  suppliers  of  the  first  food  for  the 
simple  wants  of  man.  Hence,  on  account  of  its 
valuable  frugiferous  productions,  recognized  as  the 
mast,  the  beech  is  generically  known  as  the  fagus,  a 
term  which  is  derived  from  phag-ein,  to  eat.  There 
was  a  period  in  the  history  of  mankind,  when  the 
fruit  of  the  oak,  the  neatly  incased  acorn,  constituted 
the  chief  means  of  subsistence  ;  and  the  Chaonian 
oaks  of  the  Pelasgic  age,  have  been  justly  immor- 
talized on  account  of  their  alimentary  virtues.  It 
was  then,  according  to  Greek  authors,  that  the 
noble  oak  was  .cherished  and  celebrated  as  the 
mother  and  nurse  of  man.  For  these  reasons,  Jupi- 
ter, the  munificent  source  of  so  great  a  blessing,  was 
adored  as  the  benignant  foster-father  of  the  Pelasgic 
race,  and  denominated  Phesronlius.  In  the  blissful 
and  hallowed  oak-tree,  according  to  the  puerile  no- 
tions of  those  illiterate  people,  dwelled  the  food- 
dispensing  god.  The  ominous  rustling  of  its  leaves, 
the  mysterious  notes  of  the  feathered  songsters 
among  its  branches,  announced  the  presence  of  the 
divinity  to  his  astonished  and  admiring  votaries,  and 
gave  hints  and  encouragement  to  those  whose  in- 
terest or  curiosity  prompted  them  to  consult  the 
oracle.    For  this  reason  odoriferous  fumes  of  incense 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  311 

were  offered  to  the  oracling  god,  under  the  Dodo- 
nsean  oak :  a  species  of  devotion  most  zealously 
observed  by  the  Druids  in  the  oak-droves  and  forests 
of  the  ancient  Gauls  and  Britons. 

Circular  dances,  the  archetype  of  the  waltz,  were 
also  performed  in  honor  of  the  marvellous  tree,  and 
its  indwelling  deity.     At  Athens,  Jupiter  was  repre- 
sented as  the  father  of  three  warders  or  proctors  — 
Anakes,  the  etymon  of  which  we  trace  in  Anax,  a 
king.     These    illustrious    scions    of    divinity,    it    is 
affirmed,    he    begat    with    the    goddess    Proserpine. 
The   one  of  them  mythology  celebrates   under  the 
name  of  Eubuleus,  the  good  counsellor ;  the  other, 
under   that    of   Dionysus,  an    appellation    which    is 
derived   from  Di6s   and   Xussai — Zeus'  trees;  and 
the  third,  under  that  of  Zasreu-.     In  other  words, 
Zeus,  the  fountain  of   life   in  the  earth,  associated 
himself    with    the    fluid    element   of    generation  — 
Proserpine-Dione,    and   be^ot  both   the   inspiriting 
mists  or  exhalations  emanating  from  the  earth,  and 
the  diversified  and  vigorous  life  of  herbs  and  tn 
Dionysus,  the    soft    and    flowing,  is  Jupiter    in    his 
attribute  of  physical  generator,  flowing  or  descending 
in  the  meteoric  phenomena  of  rain  and  dew.  upon 
the  plytonic  productions  of  the  earth,  especially  the 
trees.     Or.  to   be   as  explicit   as  an  abstruse  theme 
will  admit,  Zeus,  the  life   of  the   earth  and   of  the 
atmosphere,  reveals  himself  in  the  earth  oracularly, 
as  Eubuleus :  upon  the  earth,  as  the  strength  of  the 
oak ;  and  in  the  fulness  of  exuberant  abundance,  as 
Dionysus.     The  aqueous  vapors  which,  in  the  form 
of  dews  and  rains,  exhale  from  the  surface  of  water 
and  the  various  organic  bodies  which  exist  upon  the 


312  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

earth,  communicate  food,  health,  and  increase  to  the 
trees,  and  by  this  means  —  personified  as  Dionysus, 
the  son  of  Jupiter,  they  afford  shelter  and  protection 
to  the  tongues  of  the  gods  —  the  feathered  choristers 
of  the  air.  Behold  the  primitive  cradle  and  the 
lisping  infancy  of  the  physico-religious  creed  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  and  Romans !  *  From  the  singular 
fact  that  Jupiter  gave  oracles  by  means  of  the  lan- 
guage of  birds,  he  had  the  honor  to  be  surnamed 
PicuSj  or  the  woodpecker,  among  the  Latins.  The 
intimate  relation  which  subsisted  between  Jupiter- 
Dodonseus  and  birds  and  trees,  may  be  learned  from 
the  circumstance  that  by  a  symbolical  representation 
of  the  ancients,  the  god  appears  placed  between  two 
trees,  among  the  branches  of  which  the  cooing  dove 
has  taken  up  its  abode. 

At  Ammonium,  in  Lybia,  Jupiter  figured  under 
the  form  of  a  ram,  and  was  known  as  Jupiter- Am- 
nion, while  at  Dodona,  he  assumed  the  semblance 
of  an  ox,  or  taurus.  One  of  the  reasons  why  this 
god  imitated  the  taurian  type  at  the  latter  place, 
was,  that  during  his  early  Pelasgic  reign,  he  was  so 

*  The  formation  of  clouds,  the  phenomena  of  rain,  and  the 
precipitation  of  moisture,  are  OAving  to  the  variableness  of  the 
state  of  heat  and  electricity  of  the  atmosphere,  "  in  consequence 
of  which,"  writes  Professor  Kidd  in  his  Bridgewater  Treatise,  "  a 
given  mass  of  air  is  incapable  of  retaining,  in  solution  or  suspen- 
sion, the  same  quantity  of  moisture  which  it  did  before ;  and 
hence  that  moisture  is  precipitated  in  the  form  of  dews  and  fogs  ; 
or  being  previously  condensed  into  accumulated  masses  of  clouds, 
is  discharged  from  those  clouds  in  the  form  of  rain."  Thus  Jupiter- 
Dionysus  still  lives,  and  is  still  the  basis  of  this  branch  of  physical 
science ;  but  how  different  in  form  is  the  ancient  from  the  modern 
divinity ! 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  313 

vaguely  defined  as  frequently  to  be  confounded  with 
Dionysus,  and  because  his  worshippers  seem  to 
have  been  partial  to  this  useful  animal  as  a  symbol- 
ical medium,  as  it  appeared  from  the  fact  that  they 
adored  their  holy  river  Acheolus  as  a  god  with  the 
attributes  of  taurus.* 

In  Egypt,  we  are  told,  Amun,  or  Jupiter- Ammon 
—  Jupiter  the  Sand//,  begat  Osiris,  the  taurian  god ; 
that  is,  the  sun  in  Taurus  is  the  personified  emana- 
tion of  the  sun,  popularly  considered  as  a  god,  in 
Aries. 

As  Moloch,  Jupiter  came  from  Phoenicia  to  Crete ; 
and  the  Phoenicians,  who,  according  to  Herodotus, 
had  sold  the  first  Dodonaean  priestess  to  the  Epi- 
rians,  could  introduce  there  with  equal  facility  a 
Jupiter  under  the  taurian  form ;  that  is,  as  Moloch, 
or  the  son  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  or  as  Jupiter- Ammon 
the  father,  in  the  symbolical  garb  of  the  ram. 

In  respect  to  Jupiter,  the  primitive  faith  of  the 
Cretans  did  not  differ  essentially  from  that  of  the 
Arcadians  and  Dodonseans,  already  made  the  sub- 
ject of  investigation.  They  indulged  the  flattering 
conviction  that  their  romantically  beautiful  island, 
with  its  rugged  cliffs  and  fertile  valleys,  its  hundred 
cities  and  its  god-mountain  —  Ida,  embodied  in  an 
eminent  degree  the  living,  active  principles  of  nature 
which,  regarded  as  the  masculine  elements  of  crea- 

*  The  true  or  primary  reason  why  the  ram,  the  ox,  etc.,  was 
employed  as  a  symbol  of  Jupiter-Dionysus,  etc.,  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  zodiac,  or  the  solar  year  of  the  ancients ;  and  hence  Jupi- 
ter in  the  guise  of  a  ram,  is  the  sun  in  Aries,  and  Jupiter  in  the 
similitude  of  an  ox,  or  rather  bull,  is  Dionysus  or  the  sun  in 
Taurus,  etc. 

27 


314  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

tion,  they  eagerly  personified  and  piously  recognized 
under  the  awe-inspiring  name  of  Zeus.* 

Crete  was  the  primeval  seat  of  Phoenician  and 
Egyptian  colonists,  as  is  evident,  among  other 
proofs,  from  its  labyrinths,  its  grotto-temples,  and 
its  taurian  idols.  This  combination  of  Phcenicio- 
Egyptian  religious  ideas,  necessarily  resulted  in  the 
production  of  a  class  of  deities  such  as  we  here 
contemplate. 

The  first  in  the  theogonic  catalogue  that  claims 
our  attention  and  elicits  our  respect,  is  Uranus  — 
heaven,  who  is  succeeded  by  Chronos  —  time.  The 
latter  begat  Zeus  with  Rhea,  who  is  the  same  as 
Tethys,  the  flowing,  humid  element  in  cosmic  pro- 
ductions, and  Zeus,  in  his  turn,  gave  existence  to 
Dictynna.  This  system  of  physico-theology  con- 
tinued to  be  the  predominant  one  in  the  greater  part 
of  Greece,  whence  it  happened  that  the  Greek  re- 
ligion was  justly  regarded  as  being  of  Cretansian 
origin  ;  while  the  Dodonaean  system  reigned  trium- 
phantly in  the  north-western  portions  of  the  Grecian 
peninsula,  and  the  adjacent  Italian  States.  I  add, 
that  the  radical  element  of  the  whole  Jupiterian 
religion,  was  primarily  and  essentially  sabaistic  in 
its  nature,  though  in  its  popular,  old  Pelasgic  as 
well  as  Cretansian,  and  Phoenico-Egyptian  forms,  it 
was  mainly  the  sustaining  and  lifegiving  principle 
of  the  earth,  considered  as  a  cosmic   organization. 


*  Mythology  proclaims  the  interesting  fact  that  Jupiter  was 
educated  on  Mount  Ida,  by  the  Corybantes,  or  priests  of  Cybele, 
who  on  that  account,  were  denominated  Idaei.  The  Cretans  also 
boasted  that  they  could  show  the  tomb  of  their  god :  Jupiter  as 
sun-god  in  the  zodiacal  sign  of  Scorpio  ! 


m  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  315 

The  recognition  and  worship  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  • 
stars,  as  divinities,  or  rather,  as  the  resplendent  sym- 
bols of  Divine  majesty,  constituted  its  broad  and 
glittering  basis.  From  time  immemorial,  Jupiter 
was  contemplated  by  his  better  informed  heathen 
adorers,  as  the  sun  with  the  symbolical  attributes 
of  taurus,  or  as  Jupiter- Moloch ;  and  his  graceful 
daughter  Dictynna,  whose  name  is  derived  from 
dikein  —  to  emit  rays,  as  the  moon,  who  appears 
now  as  Britomartis,  or  the  charming  virgin,  then  as 
Pasiphae,  or  the  all-illuminating,  and  lastly  as  Arte- 
mis, or  Diana.  The  Cretansian  Dictynna  wore  a 
verdant  crown,  wreathed,  by  her  fond  admirers,  of 
the  magic  plant  diktamnon,  which  ancient  authors 
affirm  grew  only  in  the  island  of  Crete,  now  Candia ; 
and  this  cranial  embellishment  symbolically  distin- 
guished the  resplendent  daughter  of  Jove,  both  as 
Luna,  or  the  goddess  of  the  moon,  and  as  Ilithyia, 
or  the  divinity  presiding  over  midwifery.  For  this 
potent  plant  was  deemed  to  be  especially  efficacious 
in  the  labors  of  childbirth,  as  well  as  in  all  female 
diseases.  Hence  little  children,  the  gift  of  the  divine 
midwife  Dictynna- Ilithyia  and  of  the  marvellous  dik* 
tamnon,  figured  among  hieroglyphical  devices,  and 
attested  the  profound  gratitude  of  her  votaries  for 
her  iEsculapian  services. 


PARAGRAPH   H. 

The  Zeus,  or  the  Jupiter  of  the  priests. 

The  august  being  whom  the  ancients,  especially 
the    Greeks,   designated    as    Pater-Deus  —  god   the 


316  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

father,  was  gradually  developed  from  the  crude  no- 
tions and  vaguely  defined  dogmas  of  faith,  a  notice 
of  which  we  have  communicated  in  the  preceding 
paragraph.  la  his  palmiest  days,  from  the  age  of 
Alexander  the  Greek  to  the  ascendency  of  Chris- 
tianity, this  supreme  being,  still  denominated  Zeus 
or  Jupiter,  assumed  an  influence  and  a  fame  among 
mankind,  which  was  coextensive  with  the  almost 
universal  monarchies  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans. 
The  creed  of  the  heathens  relating  to  their  Pater- 
Deus,  is  to  be  ascertained  by  an  investigation  of 
their  literary  and  plastic  productions.  According  to 
the  epic  poet  Ennius,  the  firmament  was  called  Ju- 
piter :  — 

"  Adspice  hoc  sublime  candens,  quem  iuvocant  Jovem  : " 

behold  this  shining  firmament  on  high!  they  in- 
voke it  as  Jupiter.  A  designation  of  the  god  like 
this,  evidently  implies  both  a  synecdoche,  by  which  a 
part  is  taken  for  the  whole,  and  a  metonymy,  in 
which  the  effect  is  put  for  the  cause.  In  the  same 
hyperbolical  style,  Horace,  in  his  first  Ode,  impiously 
stigmatizes  the  god  as  the  frigid  Jove  ;  an  epithet 
which  is  boiTowed  from  Hibemice,  one  of  the  cogno- 
mens of  this  deity,  signifying  his  dominion  during 
the  winter  season.  The  two  remaining  seasons  of 
the  ancient  year,  spring  and  summer,  were  respec- 
tively denominated  the  vernal  and  the  aestival  Ju- 
piter. With  the  same  metaphorical  inaccuracy,  the 
poet  last  quoted  describes  Jupiter  as  mains,  in  allu- 
sion to  his  boreal  manifestations  in  nature ;  while 
Virgil,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Georgica,  availing 
himself  of  the  license  common   to    his  profession, 


IX    ITS    SYMBOLICAL    DEVELOPMENT.  317 

makes  this  god  and  the  air  or  weather,  considered  as 
detrimental  to  The  ripe  grapes,  synonymous :  — 

••  Et  jam  maturis  metuendus  Jupiter  avis." 

The  sum  of  all  these  indefinite  figurative  expres- 
sions resolves  itself  into  the  following  thesis :  The 
ancients  acknowledged  Jupiter  as  the  god  of  the 
three  seasons,  which  in  that  age  embraced  the  an- 
nual cycle  of  time,  and  hesitated  not  to  personify 
these  seasons,  each  one  of  which  they  designated  as 
Jupiter,  while  at  the  same  time,  in  his  totality,  he 
was  the  god  of  the  year ;  and  they  accordingly 
adored  him  as  the  grand  embodiment  of  all  the  me- 
teorological and  astronomical  phenomena  of  the 
heavens.  Thus  he  was  called  Lucetius  by  the  people 
of  Campania,  and  Diespiter  by  the  Latins,  u  be- 
cause, n  says  Tooke,  "  he  cheers  and  comforts  us 
with  the  light  of  day,  as  much  as  with  life  itself,  or 
because  he  was  believed  to  be  the  father  of  lisrht." 
PluviuSj  too,  was  one  of  hi?  appellations,  not  because 
he  and  rain  implied  the  same  thing,  but  because  he 
gives  rain.  The  surname  of  Capifoliiius  conferred 
upon  the  god,  was  surely  never  meant  to  convey  the 
idea  that  the  Romans  worshipped  the  hill  bearing 
that  name  as  Jupiter,  but  the  deity  to  whom  the 
temple,  situated  upon  that  renowned  eminence,  was 
dedicated.  When,  on  a  certain  occasion,  this  god 
had  brought  the  fleeing,  panic-struck  Romans  to  a 
stand,  and  was  therefore  honored  with  the  title  of 
Stator,  he  and  the  reassured  warriors  could  not  be 
contemplated  as  one,  even  by  the  indulgence  of  the 
most  extravagant  figure  of  speech,  but  as  two  dis- 
tinct forms  of  existence,  though  there  had  been  a 

27* 


318  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

time,  and"  among  the  vulgar  that  time  might  still 
exist  to  some  extent,  when  the  gods  and  the  various 
parts  of  creation  were  deemed  to  be  synonymous. 
Jupiter  had  the  honor  to  be  glorified  by  the  earliest 
efforts  of  sculpture,  and  Pausanias  informs  us  that 
at  Larissa  there  was  an  image  of  the  god  which  was 
distinguished  by  three  eyes,  two  in  the  usual  posi- 
tion, and  one  in  the  forehead.  The  presumption  is, 
that  it  denoted  the  Jupiter  Patroos  of  Priamus,  the 
last  king  of  Troy  :  the  paternal  or  ancestral  god,  who 
still  graciously  regards  the  descendants  of  his  an- 
cient votaries,  and  to  whom  he  will  extend  his  pro- 
tective care  to  remotest  time.  When  the  trophy  of 
the  Trojan  conquest  was  divided,  this  primitive 
specimen  of  the  iconic  art  fell  to  the  lot  of  Sthene- 
lus,  the  son  of  Capaneus,  who  conveyed  it  to  the 
above-mentioned  Thessalian  city.  It  is  presumed 
that  the  three  visual  organs  of  the  god  denoted  his 
three  principal  relations  to  the  universe,  defined  as 
the  supernal,  the  subterranean,  and  the  maritimal, 
and  deistically  distinguished  as  Jupiter  the  supreme 
god,  in  his  celestial,  Plutonian,  and  Neptunian  at- 
tributes and  manifestations.  In  a  similar  style,  the 
Platonic  philosopher  Proclus  speaks  of  a  demiurgic 
trias  of  this  god,  under  the  name"  of  three  persons, 
the  first  of  whom  was  designated  as  Zeus  par  excel- 
lence^ who  was  the  same  as  Zeus  the  father ;  the 
second,  as  Zeus  Poseidon  —  the  power  or  duamis ; 
and  the  third  as  Pluto  —  the  spirit,  or  nous.  This 
Hellenic  trinity  dwindled  into  oblivion  after  the  art 
of  sculpture  among  the  Greeks  had  succeeded, 
through  the  creative  genius  of  Phidias,  to  produce 
the  Olympian  Jupiter,  as  the  omnipotent,  pan-Hel- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  319 

lenic  King,  when  the  god  had  no  longer  an  equal  or 
a  divided  divinity,  but  was  emphatieally  the  God  of 
gods,  as  well  as  the  sole  source  of  universal  being. 
Another  statue  of  Zeus,  at  Olympia,  the  masterly 
production  of  the  chisel  of  Aristonus  of  iEgina,  pre- 
sented by  the  Metapontines  as  a  votive  offering  to  the 
god,  serves  still  further  to  illustrate  the  character  and 
determine  the  functions  of  the  Pater-Deus.  This 
Aristonic  Jupiter  is  represented  with  the  face  averted 
towards  the  east,  with  an  eagle  perched  upon  one 
hand,  and  lightning  grasped  in  the  other,  while  a 
garland  of  vernal  flowers  decorated  the  awful  brow 
of  the  supreme  majesty :  it  is,  as  Juvenal  often  calls 
him,  the  Jupiter  Vermis ;  and  this  fact  is  corrobora- 
tive of  the  position  already  advanced,  that  the  Zeus 
Patroos  at  Larissa,  endowed  with  the  supernumerary 
eye,  imported  the  three  seasons  of  the  year,  as  well 
as  the  three  cosmic  relations  before  noticed.  Such 
were  some  of  the  earlier  attempts  of  the  complicated 
and  abstruse  science  of  symbology,  still  in  a  state 
of  development,  to  give  expression  to  religious  im- 
pressions, and  to  represent  under  suitable  forms,  the 
innate  or  empirical  conviction  of  the  existence  and 
providence  of  a  Supreme  Being.  They  originated 
in  an  age  when  polytheism  had  not  yet  been  reduced 
into  a  regular  and  harmonious  system  under  the 
magic  effusions  of  poetic  genius,  or  the  progressive 
development  of  plastic  perfection.  It  is  to  be  deeply 
regretted  that  so  few  of  the  hymns  and  prayers, 
which  once  resounded  in  the  presence  of  the  still 
somewhat  uncouth  Pelasgic  images  of  the  Pater- 
Deus,  have  survived  the  corrosion  of  time,  or  the 
destructive  Vandalism  of  barbaric  hordes,  as  they 


320  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

would  furnish  the  means  of  a  most  correct  apprecia- 
tion of  the  true  character  of  the  Zeus  of  the  more 
intelligent  and  philosophic  portion  of  the  heathen 
world.     As  the  case  now  stands,  we  can  argue  only 
according   to    the    inferences    deduced  from   uncon- 
nected  fragments  of  ancient  literature.     A  remark- 
able specimen  of  a  hymnic  relic  has  been  preserved 
through   the   foresight  or  curiosity  of   Philostratus. 
It  claims  the  ancient  minstrel  Pamphos  for  its  au- 
thor, and  translated  into  prose,  runs   thus  :    "  Most 
glorious  Zeus,  greatest  of  the  gods,  wrapped  in  the 
ordure    of    sheep,    horses,    and   mules ! '       A   paean 
qualified  by  antitheses  as  glaring  as  these,  and  ap- 
parently so  contradictory  and  absurd,  is  well  calcu- 
lated to    fill  the  mind  of  the  uninitiated  into   the 
mysteries  of  the  heathen  religion,  with  mingled  feel- 
ings of  surprise  and  disgust.     With  the  symbologist, 
versed  in  the  phraseology,  and  acquainted  with  the 
emblematic  devices  of  the  hieroglyphical  system  of 
theology,  the  case  is  very  different.    In  the  preceding 
devout  yet  seemingly  extravagant  strains  of  psalmody, 
the  supreme  god  Zeus  figures  before  us  in  the  humble 
capacity  of  the  scarabceus  pillularius,  in  French  the 
fouille-merde,  wallowing  in  the  excrementitious  mat- 
ter of  various  animals.     An  idea  strikingly  consonant 
to  the  creed  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  according  to 
which  they  believed  this  species  of  scarabaeus  to  be 
procured  from  the   ordure,  in  which   it    delights  to 
revel ;  and  hence  this  insect  was  selected  as  a  sacred 
and  most  significant  symbol  of  life  and  palingenisia.* 


*  The   scarabceus  pillularius  is  noted  for  its  singular  instinct, 
"which  directs  it  to  lay  its  eggs  into  the  dung  of  animals,  especially 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  321 

In  his  character  of  scaraba3us,  or,  more  properly  speak- 
ing, under  the  symbol  of  the  scarabseus,  Jupiter  is 
therefore  nothing  less  than  the  fructifying  and  nour- 
ishing power  —  to  zoog-onoun,  of  the  universe.  Zeus 
was  likewise  qualified  by  the  epithet  Apomuios,  be- 
cause he  had  the  head  of  a  fly,  which  Schlichtegroll 
thinks  was  meant  for  the  bee,  the  symbol  of  primeval 
food;  while  others,  who  are  of  opinion  that  a  fly 
was  as  clearly  signified  as  it  was  expressed  in  the 
symbol,  consider  the  insect-headed  god  to  be  the 
same  as  the  Beelzebub  of  the  Ekronites,  noticed  in 
the  Old  Testament:  the  god  of  the  flies,  or  rather 
the  fly-restrainer  and  protector  against  these  often 
very  annoying  and  sometimes   destructive  insects.* 

into  that  of  neat-cattle,  and  for  rolling  them  up  into  pellets  formed 
of  this  feculent  matter,  when  they  are  hatched  by  the  influence  of 
the  sun  ;  a  mode  of  incubation  or  reproduction  which  escaped  the 
scrutiny  of  the  ancients,  and  thus  corruption  was  regarded  as  the 
immediate  source  of  organic  existence.  The  scarabasus  was  im- 
pictured  upon  the  obelisks  and  sarcophagi  of  the  Egpytians,  and 
as  the  emblem  of  life  and  palingenisia,  it  was  placed  at  the  root 
of  the  nose  of  the  embalmed  mummy. 

*  The  Jews  stigmatized  Beelzebub  as  the  prince  of  the  devils, 
to  which  notion  our  Saviour  accommodated  himself  in  his  inter- 
course with  them,  without,  it  is  presumed,  necessarily  indorsing  it 
as  true.  Belus,  Bel,  Beel,  Baal,  etc.,  are  all  cognate  terms,  and 
denote  the  sun  considered  as  a  god.  Zebub  signifies  a  fly,  and 
hence  Beelzebub,  Baalzebub,  etc.,  mean  fly-god,  the  sun.  In  vain 
will  heathen  antiquities  be  searched  to  find  proof  that  Bel,  Baal, 
etc.,  and  Satan  or  the  devil,  are  the  same !  The  etymological 
analyses  given  of  Beelzebub  by  the  distinguished  lexicographer, 
Parkhurst,  deserves  a  brief  attention.  "  Baalzebub,"  says  he,  is 
mentioned  2  Kings,  i.  2,  3, 16,  as  the  Aleim,  or  God  of  the  Philis- 
tines of  Ekron.  He  appears  by  that  history  to  have  been  one  of 
their  medical  idols ;  and  as  Baal  denotes  the  sun,  so  the  attribute 


322  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

In  introducing  a  number  of  Orphic  hymns  into 
his  Eclogues,  Stobams,  a  Greek  writer  who  nourished 
in  the  fifth  century,  has  insured  immortality  to  at 
least  one  fragment  of  sacred  poetry,  the  strains  of 
which  are  at  once  lofty  and  profound  :  "  Zeus  is  the 
first  and  the  last ;  the  head  and  the  extremities : 
from  him  have  proceeded  all  things.  He  became 
man  and  pure  virgin  —  in  the  language  of  the  an- 
cients, the  masculine  and  feminine  agents  of  crea- 
tion ;  is  the  prop  of  earth  and  heaven ;  the  soul  of 
all  things ;  and  the  principle  of  mobility  in  fire.  He 
is  the  sun  and  the  moon  ;  the  fountain  of  the  ocean  ; 
the  demiurgns  that  formed  the  universe ;  one  pow- 
er ;  one  god ;  the  mighty  creator  and  governor  of 
the  world.  Every  thing,  fire,  water,  earth,  ether, 
night,  the   heavens,   Metis,*   the    primeval  architec- 


zcbub  seems  to  import  his  power  in  causing  water  to  gush  out  of 
the  earth,  and  in  promoting  the  fluidity  and  due  discharge  of  the 
juices  and  blood  in  vegetables,  animals,  and  men,  and  thereby  con- 
tinuing or  restoring  their  health  and  vigor.  And  as  flies,  from  the 
manner  of  their  issuing  from  their  holes,  were  no  improper  em- 
blems of  fluids  gushing  forth,  hence  the  epithet  zebub  makes  it 
probable  that  a  fly  was  part  of  the  imagery  of  the  Baal  at  Ek- 
ron,  or  that  a  fly  accompanied  the  bull  or  other  image,  as  we  see 
in  many  instances  produced  by  Montfaucon,  etc."  Having  in- 
formed us  that  Jupiter,  under  the  name  of  Belus  or  Bel,  had  ulti- 
mately reigned  among  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  as  the 
first  of  all  the  gods,  Tooke  adds :  "  In  different  places  and  lan- 
guages, he  was  afterwards  called  Beel,  Baal,  Beelphegor,  Beel- 
zebub, and  Belzemen." 

*  Metis  was  one  of  the  Oceanides,  and  first  wife  of  Jupiter : 
this  divine  marriage  was  the  union  of  fire  and  water ;  the  active 
principle  of  creation  with  its  passive  element  —  the  prima  materia 
of  all  things. 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  323 

tress,  the  beautiful  Eros,  Cupid,  or  the  god  of  love, 
all  is  included  within  the  vast  dimensions  of  his 
glorious  body."  This  vivid  picture  of  Zeus,  just 
shaded  enough  by  the  artist  to  relieve  its  fresh 
colors,  and  point  out  its  lofty,  vigorous  style,  reveals 
the  god  to  us  as  the  supreme,  divine  unity,  under 
the  sensible  image  of  a  corporeal  totality,  in  a  hu- 
man-like, mundane  body :  the  universe  has  assumed 
the  form  of  man ! 

At  a  later  period,  when  the  Greeks  had  made 
some  progress  in  dialectic  science,  they  no  longer 
manifested  a  willingness  blindly  to  acquiesce  in 
religious  dogmas,  however  true  they  might  be,  un- 
supported by  the  evidence  of  reason,  or  rendered 
probable  by  experience  and  observation,  and  boldly 
demanded  a  logical  definition  of  the  existence  and 
attributes  of  the  Pater-Deus,  and  the  proof  of  the 
nature  and  mode  of  his  divine  activity  according  to 
the  principles  of  induction.  Alas !  too  little  must 
be  yielded,  where  too  much  is  demanded !  The  first 
who  claimed  to  be  heard  upon  this  subject,  were 
Thales  and  Anaxagoras,  who  may  be  regarded  as 
the  illustrious  founders  of  the  most  ancient  of  the 
Ionic  schools,  which,  however,  still  retained  a  sacer- 
dotal character,  and  gave  expression  to  its  meta- 
ohysical  researches  in  lyric  strains  and  sacred  im- 
agery. 

In  prose,  Pherecydes  and  Pythagoras  led  the  van 
in  doctrinal  theology.  The  former  of  these  philoso- 
phers understood  by  Zeus  —  Zen,  ether  ;  that  is,  the 
external,  highest,  empyrean  heaven,  inclosing  the 
supernal  world;    or   the    light    as   the    concentrated 


324  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

primordial  element*  This  Pherecydian  doctrine  is 
cognate  to  the  Persian  of  Mithras,  the  Egyptian  of 
Horus,  and  the  Hindoo  of  Brahma,  and  is  derived 
from  the  same  prolific  and  primitive  source.  The 
theory  of  two  principles,  or  the  dogma  of  good  and 
evil,  advanced  by  Pythagoras,  the  former  under  the 
name  of  Zeus,  the  nous,  the  one  or  monas  —  the 
good ;  and  the  latter  under  that  of  duas,  or  duality, 
as  the  materiate  of  existence  and  the  source  of  evil, 
has  a  similar  origin.  Consulting  the  apathic  and 
inflexible  stoics  on  this  interesting  subject,  we  find 
that  the  Zeus  of  Chrysippus  was  the  fountain  and 
essence  of  all  forms  and  modes  of  existence.  Zeus 
is  the  appellation  of  the  god — to  zen,  because  he 
gives  life  to  all,  and  Dis,  from  dia,  because  through 
him  are  all  things.  As  to  the  divine  Plato,  he  por- 
trays this  divinity  in  brief  but  forcible  language  as 
the  creator  and  governor  of  the  world. 

According  to  Stobseus,  Porphyrius  taught,  in  the 
spirit  and  style  of  the  old  Orphic  theology, "  that  Zeus 
was  the  whole  world;  the  animal  of  animals  —  zoon 
ek  zoon;  the  god  of  gods.  Moreover,  that  he  was 
nous  —  the  intelligence,  through  which  he  produced 
all  things ;  for  it  was  by  means  of  ideas  that  he 
originated  and  formed  every  part  of  the  universe." 
What  Chronos,  or  Cronos,  is  potentia,  in  respect  to 
the  universe,  this  Porphyrian  Zeus  is  actu;  that  is, 
Zeus  is  the  actualized  creative  power  of  Chronos, 


*  Zeus,  it  will  be  perceived  here,  is  the  male  element,  power, 
or  principle  of  creation.  Chthonia  —  the  earth ;  Metis  —  the 
water,  etc.,  are  his  consorts :  chemical  affinity,  electrical  attraction 
and  repulsion,  are  the  mighty  agents  in  cosmic  organization. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  325 

and  hence  he  has  very  properly  been  described  as 
Zeus-Chronos.  "  The  father  of  Zeus,"  writes  Kaiser, 
"  was  defined  as  time,  or  Chronos,  according  to  a 
more  recent  system  of  theogony,  because  he  reigned 
prior  to  his  great  son,  though  as  regards  rank,  he  is 
inferior  to  him.  But  the  fact  that  Zeus,  the  supreme 
deity,  is  not  the  first  god  in  the  order  of  time,  does 
not  affect  his  supremacy."  I  add  that  Zeus,  consid- 
ered as  demiurgus  and  governor  of  the  world,  is 
Chronos,  or  time  realized  in  cosmos.  In  Zeus  all 
order  of  nature  gravitates  as  in  its  cosmic  centre. 
Through  him,  the  vast  body  of  nature,  the  cosmic 
god-man,  the  various  parts  of  creation  exist,  and 
attain  to  unity.  Viewed  in  this  comprehensive 
light,  especially  as  the  nous,  the  understanding  or 
intelligence,  we  are  able  to  comprehend  the  nature 
and  meaning  of  the  goddess  Athena,  contemplated 
as  the  ever  chaste  virgin  under  the  name  of  Minerva, 
born  from  the  head  of  the  god:  she  is  the  lovely 
personification  of  the  wisdom  of  her  celestial  sire, 
and  of  the  centralization  of  the  unity  of  cosmic  plu- 
rality in  him. 

With  Juno,  Zeus  begat  Mars,  but  the  martial 
daring  of  this  god,  based  upon  mere  brute  force, 
could  accomplish  nothing  that  was  worthy  of  the 
scion  of  so  exalted  a  parentage,  without  the  control- 
ling and  mediative  wisdom  of  Minerva.  With 
Semele,  the  impersonation  of  the  earth,  Zeus,  the 
ether,  fire,  and  lightning,  procreated  Dionysus :  the 
plurality  of  existence,  or  nature  considered  in  its 
cosmic  elements  and  diversified  forms.  Semele,  the 
fragile  goddess,  unable  to  bear  the  full  generative 
influences  of  her  puissant  spouse,  died,  and  entered 

28 


326  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

into  the  bleak  abode  of  night :  the  organic  life  of  the 
earth  stagnates  and  dies  after  the  autumnal  equinox ! 
The  immatured  son,  removed  from  the  senescent 
womb  of  the  defunct  mother,  is  carefully  concealed 
by  the  anxious  father,  in  one  of  his  hips;  that  is, 
the  seeds  and  properties  of  organic  existence  are 
preserved  by  the  god  of  nature  till  Semele,  the 
earth,  shall  again  revive  at  the  coming  spring.* 

According  to  the  Cretansian  theogony,  Zeus  could 
boast  the  paternity  of  three  celebrated  daughters, 
known  in  poetry  and  the  fine  arts  as  the  Horce, 
whom  he  begat  with  TJiemis  —  the  primordial  law. 
The  first  was  named  Dike  —  justice;  the  second, 
Eunomia  —  the  equal  and  harmonious  execution  of 
justice ;  and  the  third,  Eirene,  or  the  peace  which 
succeeds  the  close  of  a  military  campaign  at  the 
end  of  summer.  In  view  of  this  last  daughter,  or 
the  Eirenic  attribute  of  the  god,  he  is  Moiragetes,  or 
supreme  controller  of  fate.  These  Horae,  fair  openers 
of  the  gates  of  heaven  and  of  Olympus,  have  also  a 
calendaric  import,  and  denote  the  three  seasons  of 
the  ancient  year.  Ethically  interpreted,  they  are  the 
antitheses  of  the  untoward,  irregular  powers  of  na- 
ture, the  enemies  of  all  order —  the  Titans;  for  they 
are  the  harmonious,  equable,  nexual  striving  of  na- 

*  The  hip  in  which  the  embryo-life  of  Dionysus  was  secured, 
is  synonymous  with  loin,  a  term  used  among  the  Hebrews  to  ex- 
press the  seat  of  the  generative  principle,  because,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed, its  efflux  is  most  sensibly  felt  in  that  region.  In  the  thirty- 
fifth  chapter  of  Genesis,  God  announces  to  Jacob  that  kings 
should  come  out  of  his  loins;  and  in  the  forty-sixth  chapter  of  the 
same  book,  it  is  said,  "  All  the  souls  which  came  with  Jacob  into 
Egypt,  which  came  out  of  his  loins,  etc.,  were  threescore  and  six." 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  327 

ture :  the  founders  of  order ;  the  promoters  of  agra- 
rian culture ;  and  the  patrons  of  civilization. 

The  ancient  Carians  conferred  the  sturdy  cogno- 
men Labrandeas  upon  Zeus;  a  title  which  recog- 
nizes a  martial  divinity  in  its  bearer,  as  it  is  derived 
from  labrus  —  the  war-axe.  The  reason  for  the  ex- 
istence of  a  Labrandean  Zeus,  has  already  been 
hinted  at  in  the  antagonism  of  the  fair  Hora?  to  the 
repulsive  Titans,  and  may  be  still  further  discovered 
in  the  fact  that  the  winter  season  was  regarded  by 
the  ancients  as  an  unpropitious  manifestation  of 
nature ;  as  a  belligerent  demon,  armed  with  fifty 
heads  and  a  hundred  hands  ;  and  personified  under 
the  appellation  of  Briareus,  whom  the  god,  in  his 
capacity  of  Jupiter- Vernus,  subdued  in  the  spring, 
and  thus  enabled  mankind  to  prosecute  the  profes- 
sion of  arms,  or  to  pursue  the  more  genial  avoca- 
tions of  domestic  industry.  For  Jupiter  was  the 
mighty  opener  of  the  portals  of  the  ancient  year, 
which,  in  accordance  with  nature,  began  in  the 
spring ;  and  as  the  vernal  unroller  of  annual  time, 
he  summoned,  as  his  votaries  were  prone  to  believe, 
his  warlike  people,  and  conducted  them  either  to  the 
blessings  of  peace  and  of  plenty  at  home,  or  to  the 
perils  and  the  glory  of  the  battle-field  abroad.  In  all 
these  relations,  Jupiter  was  the  good  deity  wrestling 
with  moral  and  physical  evil.  Moreover,  as  Zeus- 
Labrandeus,  he  was  virtually  the  same  as  Zeus  akrios 
and  keraunios,  who,  throned  on  high,  from  whence 
he  hurled  forth  thunder  and  lightning ;  rent  the 
clouds  with  his  fiery  bolts  ;  *  and  descended  in  irre- 

*  According  to  the  personifying  tendency  of  mythic  theology, 


328  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

sistible  torrents  of  rain,  or  in  mild,  gentle,  vernal 
showers,  which  dissolved  and  bore  down  with  them 
the  reluctant  snows  of  the  mountains,  while  they 
stimulated  and  fructified  the  still  dormant  yet 
awaking  earth,  revealing  himself  as  Zeus  Kataibates, 
and  the  Jupiter  pluvius :  the  god  that  comes  down 
from  heaven,  and  that  brings  rain.  In  these  meteor- 
ological phenomena,  Zeus  was  metaphorically  the 
mild,  genial  air  or  atmosphere,  which  generates  fer- 
tility in  the  earth ;  promotes  the  growth  and  design 
of  its  productions ;  and  secures  fruitful  seasons  and 
abundant  harvests  to  mortals.  Hence  the  Cre- 
tans, who  adored  the  Pater-Deus  as  the  benefi- 
cent source  of  every  blessing,  conferred  upon  him 
those  significant  epithets  above  enumerated,  and 
which  were  so  admirably  adapted  both  to  illustrate 

dark,  scowling,  threatening  clouds,  borne,  as  the  poets  fancied, 
upon  their  flying  storm-steeds ;  exhaling  the  fleecy  mist  from 
their  foaming  sides  ;  shaking  frost,  snow,  or  hail  from  their  froth- 
ing mouths  or  flowing  manes,  were  metamorphosed  into  giants 
by  the  name  of  Titans,  rising  up  against  heaven,  prepared  to 
scale  and  sack  the  burnished  and  sparkling  seat  of  empire  of  Ju- 
piter, the  father  of  gods  and  men,  who,  to  prevent  so  calamitous 
an  event,  and  to  preserve  that  balance  of  power  in  the  universe 
without  which  order  and  harmony  must  give  place  to  anarchy 
and  confusion,  incased  in  a  panoply  of  empyrean  light  and  fire ; 
armed  with  vivid  lightning  and  the  three-forked  thunderbolt ; 
and  urging  his  electric  coursers  athwart  the  celestial  vault :  his 
eyes  Hashing,  and  his  lips  uttering  the  deep,  hollow,  awful  peals 
of  impending  doom ;  he  rushes  upon  the  insolent  foe,  defeats  and 
hurls  him  to  the  earth  !  Nevertheless,  these  Titan  forces,  led  on 
by  Briareus,  are  also  ministrant  to  Jove,  who  raises  the  storm; 
mingles  icitfi  the  ivind;  and  is  emphatically  the  cloud-compeller ;  — 

"  Then  Jove  from  Ida's  top  his  horrors  spreads; 
The  clouds  burst  dreadful  o'er  the  Grecian  heads." 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  329 

his  goodness,  and  to  magnify  his  name.  As  to  his 
bearing  towards  the  enemies  of  his  votaries  and  fa- 
vorites, he  proved  himself  to  be  a  very  different  god 
from  what  we  have  just  described  him  to  be,  assum- 
ing a  most  appalling  character:  he  was  now  Zeus- 
Vindex  —  the  defender,  and  Jupiter- Ultor  —  the  aven- 
ger, who  sent  panic  terror  into  the  ranks  of  the 
opposing  foes,  crushing  them  to  the  earth  in  the 
potency  of  his  wrath  and  the  might  of  his  power; 
thus  signally  interposing  in  behalf  of  his  people,  to 
whom  also  he  is  the  mild,  and  the  Pliuxios,  who 
forces  the  presumptuous  enemy  who  refuses  to  sub- 
mit, to  flee.  Jupiter- Liberator  was  likewise  one  of 
the  distinguishing  appellations  of  the  god,  inasmuch 
as  he  delivered  from  political  bondage  the  nations 
who  sighed  under  the  yoke  of  foreign  oppression. 
In  a  higher,  ethical  sense,  the  liberating  or  eleu- 
therion  god,  sets  at  liberty  the  body-imprisoned 
souls,  and  conducts  them  back  from  the  reverses 
and  trials  of  this  life  into  their  true  father-land  and 
primeval  home.  Basileus  and  Pater  are  titles  by 
which  Zeus  used  to  be  addressed  in  hymns  and 
liturgic  formulas,  and  they  present  the  god  to  our 
contemplation  in  the  new  and  interesting  light  as 
the  ideal  centre  of  the  extensive  cycle  of  social  life. 
The  idea  of  Zeus  as  father  and  king,  developed  it- 
self organically  from  that  of  the  father  and  head  of 
the  human  family,  and  the  patriarchal  government 
was  the  revered  type  after  which  the  administration 
of  the  Pater-Deus  was  naturally  presumed  to  be 
conducted.  As  Burgrave  and  Pretor  of  the  city,  the 
god  was  designated  by  the  titles  of  Polieus  and  Po~ 
liouchos.     In    short,   he   was  the   normal,   hallowed 

28* 


330  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

standard  of  all  the  functions  and  duties  of  the 
social  relations,  devised  by  the  wisdom  or  dictated 
by  the  piety  of  mankind,  and  sanctioned  by  the  in- 
delible seal  of  time.  Cities  constituted  the  first 
considerable  commonwealth  of  the  human  race,  and 
even  at  the  present  day,  a  Pekin,  a  Paris,  or  a  Lon- 
don, so  completely  embodies  the  organic  vitality  of 
the  State,  that  its  fate  involves  that  of  the  nation, 
whose  life-blood  circulates  within  its  capitoline 
limits.  It  was  in  consequence  of  facts  like  these, 
that  in  addition  to  his  other  city  titles,  Zeus  also 
bore  that  of  Dikaspolos,  because  he  was  the  primary 
source  and  supreme  administrator  of  all  laws,  from 
their  incipient  manifestations  at  the  cradle  to  their 
complete  unfolding  and  mature  vigor  in  the  senate- 
chamber  or  the  curule  chair ;  and  from  the  humble 
hearth-stone  to  the  towering  throne  of  regal  state. 
At  Athens,  the  ancient  school  of  the  European 
world,  and  other  cities,  he  had  altars  in  the  market- 
place, and  responded  to  the  name  of  Agoraios,  be- 
cause he  guarded  the  faith  and  integrity  of  the  people 
who  met  there  for  the  purpose  of  traffic,  or  the  trans- 
action of  civil  affairs.  At  the  transfer  of  real  estate, 
both  parties  were  obliged  solemnly  to  swear  that 
they  would  deal  equitably  towards  each  other.  The 
oath,  when  taken  in  the  name  of  Zeus  —  Apollo  was 
also  frequently  invoked  upon  such  occasions  —  was 
accompanied  by  an  offering  of  incense  —  thumiama, 
to  him  as  the  god  of  the  market.  It  was  only  after 
this  impressive  formality  had  been  duly  observed, 
that  the  officiating  magistrate  was  permitted  to 
make  an  entry  of  the  sale.  Senators  and  councillors 
of  State  were  required,  in  order  properly  to  discharge 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  331 

their  important  duties,  to  prefer  their  prayers  to 
Minerva  and  to  Jupiter- Boulaios,  the  adviser.  The 
philosophers,  whose  wisdom  had  not  yet  taught 
them  the  pernicious  lessons  to  ignore  the  claims  of 
piety,  regarded  Zeus  as  the  summum  bonum,  or  pri- 
mary and  sole  source  of  all  that  is  great  and  good  in 
the  universe,  and  especially  as  the  origin  and  essence 
of  all  law  and  justice.  They  were  firmly  persuaded 
that  through  him  alone  man  could  attain  to  a  just 
appreciation  of  what  is  good  and  evil,  or  right  and 
wrong. 

According  to  Thucydides  and  other  authors,  among 
other  qualifications  required  of  an  Athenian  magis- 
trate before  he  could  be  permitted  to  serve  in  a  pub- 
lic capacity,  were  these :  that  he  should  be  able  to 
furnish  satisfactory  testimonials  that  he  could  trace 
his  Athenian  pedigree,  on  the  father  and  mother's 
side,  at  least  to  the  third  generation,  and  that  he  had 
erected  altars  to  Zeus-Patrous  and  Zeus- Her ceus ;  * 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  Athenian  citizenship 
depended  absolutely  upon  the  knowledge  and  the 
worship  of  the  god  under  these  attributes.  Besides, 
the  conjugal  relation  of  Zeus  and  Juno,  or  Hera,  is 
the  fair  and  chaste  model  after  which  all  connubial 
connections  among  mankind  are  to  be  observed.  It 
is  a  holy  marriage  —  ieros  gamos,  an  immaculate 
consecration  ;  and  therefore  Juno  is  qualified  by  the 
honorable  epithet  Teleia,  or  perfect,  a  distinction 
which  implies  that  she  is  united  to  her  spouse  by  a 
sacrament  or  solemn  dedication.     She  is  further  de- 

*  Herceus  is  derived  from  erkos,  the  court  or  area  of  a  dwel- 
ling :  and  Patrous  denotes  paternal  —  the  god  of  the  ancestors. 


332  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

nominated  Gamelios  or  Pronuba,  the  bridemaid  or 
bridal  suitress.  It  was  in  a  grotto  on  Mount  Cithae- 
ron  where,  for  the  first  time  and  in  secret,  Jupiter  pre- 
sumed to  embrace  the  lovely  goddess ;  and  Juno,  on 
account  of  the  locality  in  which  the  incident  took 
place,  was  called  Muchia,  but  in  allusion  to  the  time, 
Nuchia,  because  it  happened  in  the  night :  Juno  the 
nocturnal  is  accordingly  the  same  as  Latona,  or 
night.  In  other  words,  this  goddess,  under  the  name 
of  Juno,  is  the  earth,  but  under  that  of  Latona,  the 
night,  which  is,  however,  only  another  term  for  the 
shadow  of  the  earth. 

Guided  by  this  divine  example,  the  end  of  the 
marital  institution  was  defined  to  be  ep  aroto  paidon 
gnesion  —  the  aration  or  cultivation  of  genuine  off- 
spring: children  born  in  holy  wedlock,  and  under 
the  august  sanction  of  the  immortal  gods,  in  contra- 
distinction to  illicit  and  meretricious  productions. 
In  the  extensive  nomenclature  appropriated  to  Zeus, 
the  appellation  Orkios  also  occurs,  implying  that  he 
is  the  overseer  and  executor  of  oaths,  and  as  such 
he  was  represented  in  the  senate  chamber  at  Olym- 
pia,  bearing  a  thunderbolt  in  each  hand,  ready  to 
smite  to  the  earth  the  impious  wretch  who  should 
dare  to  contract  the  flagrant  guilt  of  perjury.  With- 
out the  devout  recognition  of  father  Zeus,  the  tenure 
of  life  and  property  in  society  was  justly  supposed 
to  rest  upon  an  insecure  basis ;  without  him, 
there  was  no  holy  tie  in  the  domestic  or  the 
municipal  relations  of  mankind;  no  true  or  lasting 
blessings ;  no  rational  or  well-founded  hope.  He 
was  universally  acknowledged  by  his  artless  and 
profoundly  religious  votaries,  to  be  the  omnipresent 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  333 

and  all-controlling  Penate  —  the  household  god,  and 
divine  housekeeper,  who  therefore  claimed  to  be 
contemplated  and  adored  as  such  both  in  families 
and  in  commonwealths.  The  childlike  faith  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  taught  them  to  believe  that  all  the 
domiciliary  relations  and  interests  of  the  human 
race  were  under  the  keen  supervision  and  gracious 
guardianship  of  the  great  and  exalted  Jupiter;  that 
they  were  consequently  the  sacred  fountains  from 
which  emanates  all  that  is  great  or  good,  noble  or 
precious,  in  human  life ;  and  that  while  they  con- 
tinued to  be  god-sustained  and  god-hallowed,  human 
happiness  should  endure  unimpaired,  and  flourish  in 
perennial  vigor.  Hence  Zeus-Herceus  had  an  altar 
which  bore  his  image  and  stood  at  the  outer  gate, 
opening  into  the  court  or  erkos  of  the  dwelling,  sur- 
rounded by  hedge  or  wall.  Here,  where  was  emphati- 
cally holy  ground,  the  god  kept  watch  and  ward  over 
the  rights  and  duties  of  the  family  ;  here  the  inmates 
of  the  house  assembled  to  worship  their  tutelar  god 
under  the  endearing  and  encouraging  name  of  Zeus- 
Herceus  ;  and  here  piety,  warmed  and  fanned  by  the 
sacred  altar-fires  of  the  domestic  hearth,  delighted  to 
iterate  and  proclaim  its  undying  faith  in  him  as  the 
Propator  —  the  first  father,  and  the  sacred  prototype 
of  all  fathers  of  all  time.  A  part  of  an  address, 
contained  in  the  eighth  book  of  Pope's  Iliad,  and 
delivered  by  Jupiter  before  the  assembled  deities  on 
Mount  Olympus,  in  which  the  thunder er  threatens 
them  with  the  dire  pams  of  Tartarus  in  case  they 
should  presume  to  assist  either  party  engaged  in  the 
Trojan  contest,  and  which  must  have  been  emi- 
nently calculated  to  impress  that  splendid  audience 


334  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

with  a  profound  sense  of  the  surpassing  power  and 
infinite  greatness  of  the  immortal  orator,  will  con- 
clude our  observations  upon  the  god,  who  grasps 
the  thunder  in  his  hands  :*  — 

"  Let  him  who  tempts  me,  dread  those  dire  abodes  ; 
And  know,  th'  Almighty  is  the  god  of  gods. 
League  all  your  forces  then,  ye  powers  above, 
Join  all,  and  try  th'  omnipotence  of  Jove  ; 
Let  down  our  golden  everlasting  chain, 
Whose  strong  embrace  holds  Heaven,  and  earth,  and  main : 
Strive  all,  of  mortal  and  immortal  birth, 
To  drag,  by  this,  the  thunderer  down  to  earth : 
Ye  strive  in  vain !     If  I  but  stretch  this  hand, 
I  heave  the  gods,  the  ocean,  and  the  land ; 
I  fix  the  chain  to  great  Olympus'  height, 
And  the  vast  world  hangs  trembling  in  my  sight ! 
For  such  I  reign,  unbounded  and  above ; 
And  such  are  men,  and  gods,  compared  to  Jove. 

*  The  influence  which  climate  exercises  upon  the  faith  of  na- 
tions, is  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  fact  that  while  Greece,  Italy, 
Scandinavia,  etc.,  have  had  their  Zeus,  Jupiter,  and  Thor,  be- 
cause they  had  the  electrical  phenomena  of  thunder  and  light- 
ning, the  bright,  cloudless  sky  of  Egypt  never  enriched  and  in- 
vigorated the  mythology  of  the  people  of  the  Nile  with  the  stern 
realities  and  refulgent  majesty  of  a  god  of  thunder. 


DIVISION  III. 


THE  OLYMPIC  GAMES. 

The  quadrennial  festival,  immortalized  under  the 
name    of  the  Olympia,  or  the  Olympic  games,  re- 
ceived its  appellation  either  from  the  town  of  Olym- 
pia, in  Elis,  at  which  it  was  celebrated,  or  from  Ju- 
piter Olympius,  to  whom  it  was  dedicated.     Mythic 
history  ascribes  the  origin  of  the  Olympic  games  to 
Hercules  and  Pelops,  and  refers  to  the  victory  ob- 
tained by  the  former  over  Augias,  about  twelve  cen- 
turies prior  to  the  Christian  era,  as  the  date  of  their 
introduction  into  Greece.    How  the  name  and  labors 
of  that  god,  and  the  majesty  of  this  king,  came  to 
be  thus  genetically  associated  with  this  pan-Hellenic 
festival,  will  be  explained  in  the  sequel.     After  these 
games  had  been  observed  for  some  time,  they  were 
neglected,  and  Ephitus,  aided  by  Lycurgus,  the  re- 
nowned Spartan  legislator,  had  the  honor  to  revive 
them.     Once  more,  however,  they  were  destined  to 
fall  into  desuetude,  and  for  the  last  time,  they  were 
reinstituted  by  Coroebus,  in   the  year  before   Christ 
seven  hundred  and  seventy-six.*     "  A  tradition  pre- 

*  Gillies  is  of  opinion  that  Coroebus  had  no  hand  in  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Olympic  games,  and  that  his  name  is  mentioned  in 

(335) 


836  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

vailed,"  writes  Gillies,  "  that  even  before  the  Dorian 
conquest,  the  fruitful  and  picturesque  banks  of  the 
Alpheus,  in  the  province  of  Elis,  or  Eleia,  had  been 
consecrated  to  Jupiter.  It  is  certain  that  athletic 
sports,  similar  to  those  described  by  Homer  at  the 
funeral  of  Patroclus,  had  been  on  many  occasions 
exhibited  in  Elis,  by  assembled  chiefs,  with  more 
than  ordinary  solemnity.  The  Dorian  conquerors 
are  said  to  have  renewed  the  consecration  of  that 
delightful  province.  But  the  wars  which  early  pre- 
vailed between  them  and  the  Athenians,,  and  the 
jealousies  and  hostilities  which  afterwards  broke  out 
among  themselves,  totally  interrupted  the  religious 
ceremonies  and  exhibitions  with  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  honor  their  common  gods  and 
heroes.  Amidst  the  calamities  which  afflicted  or 
threatened  the  Peloponnesus,  Iphitus,  a  descendant 
of  Oxylus,  to  whom  the  province  of  Eleia  had  fallen 
in  the  general  partition  of  the  peninsula,  applied  to 
the  Delphic  oracle.  The  priests  of  Apollo,  ever  dis- 
posed to  favor  the  views  of  kings  and  legislators, 
answered  agreeably  to  his  wish,  that  the  festivals 
anciently  celebrated  at  Olympia,  on  the  Alpheus, 
must  be  renewed,  and  an  armistice  proclaimed  for 
such  States  as  were  willing  to  partake  of  them,  and 
desirous  to  avert  the  vengeance  of  heaven.  Forti- 
fied by  this  authority,  and  assisted  by  the  advice  of 
Lycurgus,  Iphitus  took  measures,  not  only  for  re- 
storing the  Olympic  solemnity,  but  for  rendering  it 


connection  with  that  of  Ephitus,  because  he  won  in  the  foot-race, 
when  the  latter,  at  the  period  designated  in  the  text,  revived  these 
games. 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  337 

perpetual.  The  injunction  of  the  oracle  was  speed- 
ily diffused  through  the  remotest  parts  of  Greece,  by 
the  numerous  votaries  who  frequented  4he  sacred 
shrine.  The  armistice  was  proclaimed  in  Pelopon- 
nesus, and  preparations  were  made  in  Eleia  for  ex- 
hibiting shows  and  performing  sacrifices.  In  the 
heroic  ages,  feats  of  bodily  strength  and  address 
were  destined  to  the  honor  of  deceased  warriors ;  * 
hymns  and  sacrifices  were  reserved  for  the  gods. 
But  the  flexible  texture  of  Grecian  superstition, 
easily  confounding  the  expressions  of  respectful 
gratitude  and  pious  veneration,  enabled  Iphitus  to 
unite  both  in  his  new  institution. 

The  festival,  which  lasted  five  days,  began  and 
ended  with  a  sacrifice  to  Olympian  Jove.  The  in- 
termediate time  was  chiefly  filled  up  by  the  gym- 
nastic exercises,  in  which  all  freemen  of  Grecian 
extraction  were  invited  to  contend,  provided  they 
had  been  born  in  lawful  wedlock,  and  had  lived 
untainted  by  any  infamous,  immoral  stain.  The 
preparation  for  this  part  of  the  entertainment  was 
made  in  the  gymnasium  of  Elis,  a  spacious  edifice, 
surrounded  by  a  double  range  of  pillars,  with  an 
open  area  in  the  middle.  Adjoining  were  various 
apartments,  containing  baths  and  other  conveniences 
for  the  combatants.  The  neighboring  country  was 
gradually  adorned  with  porticos,  shady  walks  and 
groves,  interspersed  with  seats  and  benches,  the 
whole  originally  destined  to  relieve  the  fatigues  and 


*  This  assertion  of  the  historian  is  not  unqualifiedly  true,  at 
least  not  in  its  application  to  the  present  article,  as  the  sequel 
will  show. 

29 


338  THE   HEATHEN  RELIGION 

anxiety  of  the  candidates  for  Olympic  fame ;  and 
frequented,  in  later  times,  by  sophists  and  philoso- 
phers, who  were  fond  to  contemplate  wisdom,  and 
communicate  knowledge,  in  those  delightful  retreats. 

The  order  of  the  athletic  exercises  or  combats, 
was  established  by  Lycurgus,  and  corresponded 
almost  exactly  to  that  described  by  Homer,  in  the 
twenty -third  book  of  the  Iliad,  and  the  eighth  of  the 
Odyssey.  Iphitus,  we  are  told,  appointed  the  other 
ceremonies  and  entertainments ;  settled  the  regular 
return  of  the  festival  at  the  end  of  every  fourth  year, 
in  the  month  of  July ;  and  gave  to  the  whole  solem- 
nity that  form  and  arrangement,  which  it  preserved 
with  little  variation,  above  a  thousand  years;  a 
period  exceeding  the  duration  of  the  most  famous 
kingdoms  and  republics  of  antiquity." 

The  care  and  superintendence  of  the  games  were 
intrusted  to  the  people  of  Elis  till  they  were  ex- 
cluded by  the  Pisaeans,  after  the  destruction  of  Pisa, 
in  the  year  preceding  the  birth  of  Christ,  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four.  The  presidents  of  the  games 
were  obliged  solemnly  to  swear,  that  they  would  act 
impartially,  and  not  take  any  bribes,  or  discover  why 
they  rejected  some  of  the  combatants.  They  gen- 
erally sat  naked,  and,  according  to  some  authors, 
held  before  them  the  crown  which  was  prepared  for 
the  conqueror,  who  was  likewise  in  a  state  of  nu- 
dity. Certain  officers  called  Alutai,  were  appointed 
to  keep  order  and  enforce  propriety  of  behavior 
during  the  celebration.  Though  the  rule  was  some- 
times neglected,  ordinarily  women  were  not  per- 
mitted to  appear  amid  the  scenes  of  the  Olympic 
festival. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  339 

The  preparations  for  the  athletic  sports  were 
great,  and  demanded  a  long  season  of  probation. 
No  person  was  allowed  to  enter  the  lists  if  he  had 
not  regularly  exercised  himself  ten  months  before 
the  celebration,  at  the  public  gymnasium  of  Elis, 
already  mentioned.  The  wrestlers  were  appointed 
by  lot.  The  gymnastic  exercises,  exhibited  in  these 
games,  and  which  consisted  in  running,  leaping, 
wrestling,  boxing,  and  the  throwing  of  the  quoit, 
collectively  bore  the  name  of  Pentathlon  or  Quin- 
quertium.  The  leapers  performed  to  the  sound  of 
flutes  playing  Pythian  airs.  "  These  gymnastic  ex- 
ercises," writes  Smith,  in  his  Festivals,  Games,  and 
Amusements,  "  being  the  most  ancient,  took  prece- 
dence of  the  horse  and  chariot-races,  though  the 
competitors  in  the  latter  were,  generally  speaking, 
men  of  higher  rank  and  consideration  than  the 
athletae,  and  the  spectacle  was  much  more  pompous 
and  magnificent." 

Beside  the  gymnastic  exercises,  and  the  horse  and 
chariot-races,  poetry,  eloquence,  and  the  fine  arts, 
also  entered  the  lists  for  Olympic  renown,  enhancing 
the  interest  of  the  occasion,  and  conferring  glory 
upon  talent. 

A  closer  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  ceremonies 
and  modes  of  proceeding  observed  at  this  celebrated 
festival,  must  necessarily  be  interesting,  and  I  there- 
fore add  the  following  communication  upon  the 
subject,  from  the  author  just  quoted :  — 

"  The  Olympic  course  was  divided  into  two 
parts,  the  stadium  and  the  hippodromus ;  the  for- 
mer of  which  was  an  elevated  open  causeway,  six 
hundred  feet  long,  being  appropriated  to  the  foot- 


340  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

races,  and  most  of  the  combats;  while  the  latter 
was  reserved  for  chariot  and  horse-races.  Pausanius 
has  transmitted  to  us  an  accurate  description  of 
both,  particularly  of  the  hippodromus ;  but  instead 
of  a  detail  which  would  be  little  interesting  to  the 
general  reader,  we  prefer  copying  the  following  ani- 
mated picture  of  the  scene  exhibited  at  Olympia  on 
the  morning  when  the  games  were  opened :  '  At  the 
first  dawn  of  day  we  repaired  to  the  stadium,  which 
was  already  filled  with  athletae,  exercising  them- 
selves in  preparatory  skirmishes,  and  surrounded  by 
multitudes  of  spectators ;  while  others  in  still  greater 
numbers  were  stationing  themselves  confusedly  on 
a  hill,  in  form  of  an  amphitheatre,  above  the  course. 
Chariots  were  flying  over  the  plain;  on  all  sides 
were  heard  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  the  neighing 
of  horses,  mingled  with  the  shouts  of  the  multitude. 
But  when  we  were  able  to  divert  our  eyes  for  a 
moment  from  this  spectacle,  and  to  contrast  with 
the  tumultuous  agitations  of  the  public  joy  the  re- 
pose and  silence  of  nature,  how  delightful  were  the 
impressions  we  experienced  from  the  serenity  of  the 
sky,  the  delightful  coolness  of  the  air  from  the  Al- 
pheus,  which  here  forms  a  magnificent  canal,  and 
the  fertile  fields,  illumined  and  embellished  by  the 
first  rays  of  the  sun.'  *  The  candidates,  having  un- 
dergone an  examination,  and  proved  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  judges  that  they  were  freemen,  that  they 
were  Grecians  by  birth,  and  that  they  were  clear 
from  all  infamous  immoral  stains,  were  led  to  the 
statue   of  Jupiter   within   the  senate-house.      This 

*  Anacharsis,  chap.  38. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  341 

image,  says  Pausanius,  was  better  calculated  than 
any  other  to  strike  terror  into  wicked  men,  for  he 
was  represented  with  thunder  ill  both  hands ;  and, 
as  if  that  were  not  a  sufficient  intimation  of  the 
wrath  of  the  deity  against  those  who  should  for- 
swear themselves,  at  his  feet  there  was  a  plate  of 
brass  containing  terrible  denunciations  against  the 
perjured.  Before  this  statue  the  candidates,  their 
relations,  and  instructors,  swore  on  the  bleeding 
limbs  of  the  victims,  that  they  were  duly  qualified 
to  engage,  solemnly  vowing  not  to  employ  any  un- 
fair means,  but  to  observe  all  the  laws  relating  to 
the  Olympic  games.  After  this  they  returned  to 
the  stadium,  and  took  their  stations  by  lot,  when 
the  herald  demanded  —  'Can  any  one  reproach 
these  athletae  with  having  been  in  bonds,  or  with 
leading  an  irregular  life  ?  '  A  profound  silence  gen- 
erally followed  this  interrogatory,  and  the  comba- 
tants became  exalted  in  the  estimation  of  the  assem- 
bly, not  only  by  this  universal  testimony  of  their 
moral  character,  but  by  the  consideration  that  they 
were  the  free  unsullied  champions  of  the  respective 
States  to  which  they  belonged ;  not  engaged  in  any 
vulgar  struggle  for  interested  or  ordinary  objects, 
but  incited  to  competition  by  a  noble  love  of  fame, 
and  a  desire  to  uphold  the  renown  of  their  native 
cities  in  the  presence  of  assembled  Greece.  Such 
being  the  qualities  required  before  they  could  enter 
the  lists,  their  friends,  filled  with  anxiety,  gathered 
round  them,  stimulating  their  exertions,  or  affording 
them  advice,  until  the  moment  arrived  when  the 
trumpet  sounded.  At  this  signal  the  runners  started 
off  amid  the  cries  and  clamor  of  the  excited  multi- 

29* 


342  THE    HEATHEN   RELIGION 

tude,  w]iose  vociferations  did  not  cease  until  the 
herald  procured  silence  by  his  trumpet,  and  pro- 
claimed the  name  and  abode  of  the  winner. 
-  "  On  the  last  day  of  the  festival,  the  conquerors, 
being  summoned  by  proclamation  to  the  tribunal 
within  the  sacred  grove,  received  the  honor  of  public 
coronation,  a  ceremony  preceded  by  pompous  sacri- 
fices. Encircled  with  the  olive  wreath,  gathered 
from  the  sacred  tree  behind  the  temple  of  Jupiter, 
the  victors,  dressed  in  rich  habits,  bearing  palm- 
branches  in  their  hands  and  almost  intoxicated  with 
joy,  proceeded  in  grand  procession  to  the  theatre, 
marching  to  the  sound  of  flutes,  and  surrounded  by 
an  immense  multitude  who  made  the  air  ring  with 
their  acclamations.  The  winners  in  the  horse  and 
chariot-races  formed  a  part  of  the  pomp,  their  stately 
coursers  bedecked  with  flowers,  seeming,  as  they 
paced  proudly  along,  to  be  conscious  participators 
of  the  triumph.  When  they  reached  the  theatre,  the 
choruses  saluted  them  with  the  ancient  hymn,  com- 
posed by  the  poet  Archilochus,  to  exalt  the  glory  of 
the  victors,  the  surrounding  multitude  joining  their 
voices  to  those  of  the  musicians.  This  being  con- 
cluded, the  trumpet  sounded,  the  herald  proclaimed 
the  name  and  country  of  the  victor,  as  well  as  the 
nature  of  his  prize,  the  acclamations  of  the  people 
within  and  without  the  building  were  redoubled, 
and  flowers  and  garlands  were  showered  from  all 
sides  upon  the  happy  conqueror,  who  at  this  moment 
was  thought  to  have  attained  the  loftiest  pinnacle 
of  human  glory  and  felicity."  Though  the  only 
guerdon  that  the  victor  received,  was  an  olive-crown, 
yet  this  trifling  mark  of  distinction  powerfully  stimu- 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  343 

lated  the  acquisition  of  virtue,  while  it  facilitated 
the  cultivation  of  the  mind,  and,  to  souls  animated 
by  a  noble  ambition,  it  possessed  an  incomparably 
higher  value,  and  was  coveted  with  far  more  inten- 
sity, than  the  most  unbounded  treasures.* 

The  statues  of  the  conquerors,  called  Olympion- 
icae,  were  erected  at  Olympia,  in  the  Altis,  or  sacred 
grove  of  Jupiter.  The  return  of  the  successful  can- 
didates of  fame,  from  the  late  scene  of  their  trials 
and  their  skill,  was  not  unlike  the  triumphal  pro- 
cessions of  the  warrior-chieftains  of  antiquity :  they 
rode  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  horses,  and  every- 
where they  were  received  with  acclamations  and  the 
most  profound  respect.  Painters  and  poets  were 
employed  in  celebrating  their  names,  and  transmit- 
ting the  memory  of  their  deeds  to  posterity.  The 
celebrity  of  this  festival  drew  together  not  only  the 
inhabitants  of  Greece,  but  also  those  of  the  neigh- 
boring islands  and  continents ;  and  the  Olympiad 
served  as  a  common  bond  of  alliance,  and  point  of 
reunion  to  the  entire  Hellenic  race.  The  name  of 
Hercules  having  been  introduced  among  the  found- 
ers of  the  Olympic  games,  it  is  necessary  to  trace 
the  nature  and  import  of  this  myth,  and  so  to  illus- 
trate the  design  and  character  of  those  games  as 
shall  enable  us  properly  to  understand  and  justly  to 
appreciate  them.     The  reputed  ancestor  of  Hercules, 


*  According  to  the  popular  belief  of  the  Greeks,  Hercules, 
whom  poets  and  romancers  had  converted  into  a  hero,  claimed 
no  higher  reward  for  his  beneficent  labors  among  mankind  than 
the  simple  olive-crown,  and  hence  this  revered  token  of  merit 
became  the  prize  of  Olympic  renown. 


344  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

Perseus  the  shining,  already  enjoyed  distinguished 
honors  as  a  wrestler,  at  Chemmis,  in  Upper  Egypt. 
There  he  could  boast  to  have  a  temple  and  statue ; 
and  there  gymnastic  games  commemorated  his 
name  and  his  exploits.  It  is  confidently  asserted 
that  he  graciously  condescended  to  honor  the  city 
of  his  celestial  progenitors,  by  occasionally  appearing 
in  his  temple,  when  his  zealous  votaries  had  the 
singular  good  fortune  to  find  one  of  his  enormous  san- 
dals, measuring  two  cubits  in  length  —  the  indubita- 
ble pledge  of  a  fruitful  year!  These  opportune  and 
most  auspicious  epiphanies  of  the  resplendent  god, 
the  devout  Chemmisites  gratefully  acknowledged  in 
the  observance  of  athletic  exercises  and  feats  of 
agility,  instituted,  it  is  affirmed,  by  Perseus  himself, 
and  intended  to  be  commemorative  of  annual,  agra- 
rian blessings.*    Of  Hercules  the  Perseide,  the  Egyp- 


*  Herodotus,  speaking  of  Perseus,  calls  him  a  hero,  though  his 
description  of  him  answers  mainly  to  that  of  a  god,  as  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  prove  him  to  be.  His  words,  embracing 
and  illustrating  the  theme  discussed  in  the  text,  are  these :  "  Chem- 
mis is  a  place  of  considerable  note  in  the  Thebaid ;  it  is  near  Neapo- 
lis,  and  remarkable  for  a  temple  of  Perseus,  the  son  of  Dana?. 
This  temple  is  of  a  square  figure,  and  surrounded  with  palm- 
trees.  The  vestibule,  which  is  very  spacious,  is  constructed  of 
stone,  and  on  the  summit  are  placed  two  large  marble  statues. 
Within  the  consecrated  inclosure  stand  the  shrine  and  statue  of 
Perseus ;  who,  as  the  inhabitants  affirm,  often  appears  in  the 
country  and  the  temple.  They  sometimes  find  one  of  his  sandals, 
which  are  of  the  length  of  two  cubits ;  and  whenever  this  hap- 
pens, fertility  reigns  throughout  Egypt.  Public  games,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Greeks,  are  celebrated  in  his  honor.  On  this  occa- 
sion they  have  every  variety  of  gymnastic  exercise.  The  rewards 
of  the  conquerors  are  cattle,  vests,  and  skins.    I  was  once  induced 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  345 

tian  priests  of  Thebes  related  an  anecdote  to  Herodo- 
tus, which,  though  apparently  so  trivial  and  destitute 
of  dignity  in  its  detail,  is  replete  with  profound  astro- 
nomical significance.  It  happened  on  a  certain  oc- 
casion, it  appears,  that  Hercules  was  seized  with  an 
irrepressible  desire  to  see  the  person  of  Jupiter  Am- 
nion —  Amaun.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  god,  for  a 
long  time,  resisted  his  unwonted  importunities  :  they 
continued  to  be  repeated  with  renewed  energy  and 
increasing  vehemence.  Obliged  at  last  to  yield, 
Jupiter  killed  a  ram ;  flayed  it ;  wrapped  his  body 
into  his  hide ;  cut  off  his  head,  and  placed  it  upon 
his  own  ;  and  thus  disguised,  presented  himself  to 
the  anxious  gaze  of  his  eager  curiosity.  Owing  to 
this  strange  incident,  the  Egyptian  statues  of  Jupiter 
represented  the  god  with  the  head  of  a  ram ;  and 
such  was  the  veneration  of  the  Thebans  for  this 
animal,  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  anniversary 
festival  of  Jupiter,  they  never  put  one  to  death.  "  On 

to  inquire  why  Perseus  made  his  appearance  to  them  alone,  and 
why  they  were  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  Egypt  by  the  cele- 
bration of  gymnastic  exercises  ?  They  informed  me,  in  return, 
that  Perseus  was  a  native  of  their  country ;  as  were  also  Danaus 
and  Lynceus,  who  made  a  voyage  into  Greece,  and  from  whom, 
in  regular  succession,  they  related  how  Perseus  was  descended. 
This  hero  visited  Egypt  for  the  purpose,  as  the  Greeks  also  affirm, 
of  carrying  from  Africa  the  gorgon's  head.  Happening  to  come 
among  them,  he  saw  and  was  known  to  his  relations.  The  name 
of  Chemmis  he  had  previously  known  from  his  mother,  and  him- 
self instituted  the  games  which  they  continued  to  celebrate."  *  In 
this  statement  —  substantially  true,  we  find  Perseus  travestied 
into  a  hero,  and  vice  versa ;  instead  of  the  life  and  exploits  of  the 
god,  corrupted  and  misrepresented  by  tradition  and  fiction. 

*  Beloe. 


346  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

this  solemnity,"  writes  the  Father  of  History,  "  they 
kill  a  ram,  and  placing  its  skin  on  the  image  of  the 
god,  they  introduce  before  it  a  figure  of  Hercules  ; 
the  assembly  afterwards  beat  the  ram,  and  conclude 
the  ceremony  by  inclosing  the  body  in  a  sacred 
chest."  All  these  coincidences  are  indicative  of  a 
vernal  festival  observed  at  Thebes.  Jupiter- Ammon, 
or  the  sun  in  the  zodiacal  sign  of  the  ram,  opened 
the  Egyptian  year,  and  proclaimed  the  beginning  of 
a  new  cycle  of  time.*  Sem-Hercules  was  the  imme- 
diate offspring  of  the  sun-god  Jupiter- Ammon,  and 
the  vernal  sun  in  its  full  development.  Hence  the 
ram  was  symbolical  both  of  Jupiter  the  father  and 
Hercules  the  son.  This  mutual  relation  of  affinity 
of  the  two  gods,  or  rather  of  the  two  persons  of  the 
one  god,  was  astronomically  expressed  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, as  maybe  still  seen  from  the  Bembinic  Isis- 
tablet,  the  series  of  the  hieroglyphical  devices  of 
which  commence  with  the  ram,  at  the  side  of  which 
stands  a  youth,  bearing  a  lance  in  one  hand,  and  a 
bird  which  he  tenders  to  the  Ovilline  beast,  in  the 
other:  it  is  Hercules,  appearing  in  the  presence  of 
Zeus,  or  Jupiter- Ammon,  and  gazing  at  the  aries- 
god,  his  illustrious  sire.  The  bird  in  his  hand,  is  the 
undying  Phoenix,  the  pregnant  symbol  of  the  great 
year  of  the  Egyptians,  the  return  of  which  was  sug- 
gested by  every  recurrent  anniversary  or  annual 
solar  cycle ;    and   therefore   it  was  with   admirable 


*  From  these  facts  it  appears  that  already,  at  that  period  of 
the  world,  the  retrograde  motion  of  the  equinoxes  had  given 
Aries  instead  of  Taurus,  as  had  formerly  been  the  case,  to  tho 
rising  year. 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  347 

propriety  that  it  was  placed  into  the  puissant  hand 
of  Sem,  the  god  of  mature  spring,  full  of  life  and 
vigor.  In  the  category  of  evolutions  of  the  Egyptian 
deities,  Sem-Hercules  was  ranked  among  the  second 
order  of  the  twelve  great  gods  of  the  people  of  the 
Nile,  and  constituted,  in  the  opinion  of  some  emi- 
nent mythologists,  the  thirteenth,  being  the  transition- 
state  or  connecting  link  between  the  past  and  future 
evolutions  of  Sol  —  the  solar  year  deified  and  imper- 
sonated according  to  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac, 
now  father,  then  son;  now  living,  then  dead!  There 
was  an  Egyptian  and  a  Grecian  Hercules ;  the  for- 
mer was  the  god,  the  latter,  the  demi-god  and  hero, 
the  son  of  Jupiter  and  Alcmena,  or,  as  others  af- 
firm of  Jupiter  and  Danae,  the  daughter  of  Acrisius, 
king  of  Argos.*  Of  the  Hercules  whose  divinity  is 
unsullied  by  foreign  admixture,  Herodotus  thus 
expresses  himself:  "  Hercules  is  certainly  one  of  the 
most  ancient  deities  of  Egypt ;  and,  as  they  them- 
selves affirm,  is  one  of  the  twelve  who  were  produced 
from  the  eight  gods,  seventeen  thousand  years  before 
the  reign  of  Amasis."  Of  the  Grecian  Hercules,  the 
date  of  whose  existence  did  not  begin  till  five  hun- 
dred years  after  the  arrival  of  the  patriarch  Jacob  in 
Egypt,  he  declares  that  in  no  part  of  that  country, 
he  was  able  to  procure  the  least  knowledge.  Kings 
and  heroes,  both  in  Egypt  and  other  countries, 
especially  Greece,  hesitated  not  to  perpetuate  their 

*  The  ancient  Egyptians,  at  least  while  the  normal  condition  of 
their  faith  remained  unimpaired,  were  never  guilty  of  the  folly  of 
postulating  the  apotheosis  of  a  human  being :  anthropolatry,  imply- 
ing the  recognition  of  divinity,  was  therefore  unknown  among 
them. 


348 


THE   HEATHEN   KELIGION 


fame  under  the  name  and  attributes  of  Hercules  ; 
and  the  noble  deeds  and  daring  adventures,  which 
they  actually  performed,  or  which  fiction  and  obse- 
quious flattery  created  for  them,  were  boldly  or  cred- 
ulously ascribed  by  the  future  historian  to  the  spu- 
rious Hercules,  the  supposititious  god-man  of  poets 
and  fabulists.  Such  are  the  data  upon  which  the 
existence  of  the  genuine  historic  Hercules,  the  divine 
son  and  true  god,  is  based.  Hercules,  the  potent 
god,  was  the  great  and  indefatigable  wrestler  in  the 
zodiacal  path,  and  it  was  for  this  reason  that  the 
reflecting  and  devout  Egyptians  recognized  and 
adored  in  him  the  power  of  God,  manifested  in  the 
triumphant  and  glorious  ascension  of  the  vernal 
sun  in  its  northern  orbit,  after  a  successful  conquest 
of  the  long  night  of  winter,  and  those  meteoric  and 
tellurian  influences  which  are  so  repugnant  to  or- 
ganic life.  Governed  by  considerations  like  these, 
Sem,  the  gallant  vanquisher  of  the  pernicious  powers 
of  the  earth  and  air,  which  prevail  during  a  Boreal 
reign  —  the  rebellious  frost-giants  of  the  Scandina- 
vians, and  oppose  themselves  to  the  benignant  dis- 
plays of  the  solar  rays,  is  now  placed  beside  the 
silent,  limping  Harpocrates  —  the  sun  in  Pisces, 
struggling  between  winter  and  spring,  with  the 
chances  of  life  and  death  almost,  equally  balanced, 
and  then,  in  juxtaposition  with  Jupiter- Ammon, — 
the  growing  sun,  shining,  however,  with  the  feebleness 
of  a  still  nascent  light,  while  he  himself  is  already 
clothed  in  the  habiliments  of  resplendent  solar 
power.*     The  sun  having  once  attained  the  culmi- 

*  The  son,  we  see  here,  is  greater  than  the  father :  just  as  the 
solar  rays  are  more  direct  and  intense  in  Taurus  than  in  Aries. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  349 

nating  point  at  the  vernal  equinox,  the  coming  year 
is  guarantied.  Hence  Sem-Hercules  is  the  sun  par 
excellence,  and  throughout  its  ecliptic  revolution ; 
and  hence,  too,  he  is  the  brave  gymnic  hero  running 
through  all  the  stadia  of  the  zodiacal  course  —  the 
mighty  and  victorious  wrestler  with  all  the  zodiacal 
beasts.  In  short,  he  is  the  ever  combating,  ever 
conquering,  and  never  dying  power  in  nature ;  and 
therefore  he  bears  in  his  hand  the  wonderful  Phoe- 
nix, the  emblem  and  pledge  of  eternal  victory,  and 
of  the  infallible  unfolding  and  recurrence  of  the  great 
year  of  solar  time.  From  what  has  been  said,  it  will 
be  apparent  how  the  name  of  Hercules  came  to  be 
associated  with  that  of  the  founders  of  the  Olympic 
games ;  nay,  why  he  had  almost  necessarily  to  be 
regarded,  in  an  age  of  tradition  and  allegory,  as  the 
illustrious  author  of  that  famous  institution,  the  soul 
and  aim  of  which  were  a  wrestling  and  vanquishing 
—  the  reflex  symbols  of  the  zodiacal  labors  or  solar 
struggles  and  triumphs  of  the  god  of  the  knotted  club, 
enacted  and  realized  in  a  grand  drama  of  histrionic 
display.  Hercules  was  the  worthy  successor  as  well 
as  the  brilliant  offspring  of  Perseus,  and  Hercules, 
the  son  of  the  sun,  was  his  name.  He  followed 
resolutely  and  nobly  in  the  path  of  light  and  glory 
first  marked  out  by  his  illustrious  sire,  Perseus  of 
Chemmis,  and  the  magnificent  synonyme  of  Jupiter, 
Mithras,  Ormuzd,  etc.  It  was,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  in  the  ancient  city  of  Chemmis,  the  native  or 
adopted  town  of  the  Persean  gods,  according  to 
Egyptian  mythology,  where  the  devout  and  grateful 
inhabitants  celebrated  an  annual  festival  in  honor  of 
Perseus,  the  god  of  solar  light  and  of  the  year  —  games 

30 


350  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

commemorative  of  agrarian  blessings  and  social 
prosperity,  at  the  season  of  the  year  when  Hercules 
his  great  son,  considered  as  the  sun  in  Leo,  had  at- 
tained in  his  solar  course,  the  extreme  limits  of  the 
northern  tropics ;  and  when  accordingly  the  fully 
developed  and  adult  sun  had  matured  the  golden 
harvests  of  the  earth. 

As  to  King  Pelops,  his  Olympic  fame  owes  its 
origin  to  the  circumstance,  that  he  reigned  at  Olym- 
pia  under  the  powerful  protectorate  of  Jupiter,  from 
whose  hand  he  had  obtained  the  regal  sceptre,  and 
with  it,  the  sanction  of  regal  rights  and  supreme 
authority ;  and  who,  if  the  history  of  a  fabulous  era 
may  be  credited,  not  only  assisted  at  the  institution 
or  revival  of  the  Olympic  games,  but  also  conquered 
Oenomaus,  king  of  Pisa,  in  a  chariot-race,  and  re- 
ceived his  daughter,  the  fair  Hippodamia,  as  the 
prize  of  his  victory. 

If,  on  the  one  hand,  we  contemplate  the  Olympic 
games  in  their  astronomical  origin  and  legitimate 
import,  and,  on  the  other,  base  our  reflections  pare- 
netically  upon  the  mythic  account  of  their  institu- 
tion, it  follows  that  the  olive-crowTn  was  awarded  to 
the  successful  combatants  in  the  games,  as  the  worthy 
successors  and  faithful  imitators  of  their  heavenly  or 
heaven-sustained,  founders :  as  the  chivalrous  and 
noble  brothers  of  Hercules  and  Pelops,  and  the 
brave  and  glorious  sons  of  Jupiter,  who,  according 
to  the  Greeks,  was  the  first  great  wrestler  with  the 
gloomy,  boreal  powers  of  the  earth  and  the  adverse 
atmospheric  agents,  the  Titans  and  giants  of  the 
mythists  and  poets ;  the  first  wrestler  at  Olympia, 
where,  tradition    affirms,   he   once   contended  with 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  351 

Hercules  the  renowned  demi-god;  the  first  and 
heavenly  Hellanodike*  and  divine  symbol  of  the  tri- 
umph of  all  that  is  great  or  good,  true  or  lovely,  in 
the  universe.  In  honor  of  him,  the  Olympic  games 
were  instituted ;  and  in  honor  of  him,  as  well  as 
with  the  laudable  view  to  stimulate  and  expand  the 
religious  sentiments  of  awe,  veneration,  and  devo- 
tion, and  impress  the  human  mind  with  a  profound 
sense  of  its  dependence  upon  a  Supreme  Being, 
Phidias  wrought  the  famous  colossal  statue  of  Jupi- 
ter, considered  as  the  Pater-Deus,  —  the  lord  of  crea- 
tion, and  the  father  of  gods  and  men.  This  superb 
and  wonderful  production  of  ancient  art  stood  in  the 
temple  of  Jupiter,  erected  in  the  Altis,  or  sacred  grove 
at  Olympia,  the  central  point  of  the  pan-Hellenic 
festival,  and  the  grand  centripetal  source  of  quad- 
rennial attraction,  emulation,  and  glory,  to  the  elite 
of  the  entire  Hellenic  race. 

*  The  Hellanodics  —  Ellanodikai,  were  the  judges  who  had  the 
entire  direction  of  every  thing  appertaining  to  the  Olympic  fes- 
tival. They  bore  the  usual  ensigns  of  magistracy,  and  were 
clothed  in  purple  robes :  they  were  the  immediate  representatives 
of  the  Elean  people  in  the  Olympia. 


DIVISION    IV. 


THE   ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES. 

The  Eleusinian  mysteries  derived  their  adjective 
appellation  from  Eleusis,  a  town  in  Attica,  where  they 
were  celebrated  with  solemn  pomp  and  typic  rites. 
The  era  of  their  institution  can  no  longer  be  deter- 
mined by  the  historian,  but  their  reorganization  and 
enlargement  by  Eumolpus,  the  son  of  Poseidon,  and 
king  of  Thrace,  date  about  fourteen  centuries  ante- 
rior to  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  are  coeval  with  the 
reign  of  Erechtheus,  the  son  of  Pandion,  and  sixth 
king  of  Athens.  They  were  divided  into  ta  megala 
and  ta  mikra,  or  the  greater  and  the  lesser.  The  lat- 
ter were  of  an  elementary  character,  and  introduc- 
tory to  the  former.  Though  the  contrary  has  been 
asserted,  a  critical  examination  of  the  subject  leaves 
no  doubt  that  both  were  annual  festivals.  The 
greater  Eleusinia  were  observed  in  the  autumn,  the 
lesser  in  the  early  spring,  with  an  interval  of  at  least 
six  months.  They  were  emphatically  agrarian  fes- 
tivals, in  which  the  introduction  of  agriculture  and 
the  cereal  grains  among  mankind,  and  the  varied 
and  important  blessings  which  they  confer  upon 
individuals   and  society,  were  gratefully  commem- 

(352) 


THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,    ETC.  353 

orated.  The  autumnal  mysteries  were  dedicated  to 
Ceres,  the  vernal,  to  her  daughter  Proserpine,  which 
is  only  another  name  for  Ceres,  considered  as  the 
earth  in  its  rejuvenescence.*  Bacchus  also  played  a 
conspicuous  part  in  both  mysteries,  but  especially  in 
the  lesser,  between  which  and  the  Attic-Bacchus 
mysteries  there  were  some  strong  points  of  resem- 
blance. Upon  a  sarcophagus,  among  other  hierc- 
glyphical  representations,  appertaining  to  the  cerealic 
class  of  mythological  ideas,  appear  Dionysus  and 
Demeter,  —  the  same  as  Bacchus  and  Ceres ;  the 
former  reclining  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  latter. 
Mounted  upon  a  car,  drawn  by  two  steeds,  stands 
Proserpine,  renovated  nature,  and  the  Hora  of  the 
summer  season,  extending  her  fair  hand  to  the  jolly 
god,  guides  the  spirited  team  of  the  benignant  god- 
dess over  the  earth,  strewn  with  garlands  of  grape- 
leaves.  In  a  grove,  between  Sicyon  and  Phlius, 
called  Pyraa,  distinguished  by  a  sanctuary  of  Deme- 
ter-Prostasia  and  Kore,  there  might  be  seen  three 
statues  in  close  proximity,  bearing  the  faces  of  Bac- 
chus and  the  goddesses  just  mentioned.  Besides, 
these  three  divinities  had  a  temple  in  common  at 
Rome,  near  the  circus  maximus. 

The  lesser  mysteries  were  celebrated  at  a  place  in 
Attica,  known  as  Agra  or  Agree,  situated  upon  one 
of  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus,  and  distant  from  Athens 
between  two  and  three  stadia.     Rigid  fasts  preceded 

*  In  his  work  on  the  "  Nature  of  the  Gods,"  Cicero  thus  etymo- 
logically  defines  the  name  of  Ceres :  "  Ceres  dicitur  quasi  a  Ge- 
rendis  fructibus :  aut  quasi  Serens,  vel  ab  antiquo  verbo  Cereo, 
quod  idem  est  ac  Creo,  quod  cunctarum  frugum  creatrix  sit  et 
altrix." 

30* 


354  THE  HEATHEN  RELIGION 

the  solemnities.  They  were  succeeded  by  purifica- 
tions in  the  Ilissus,  which  demanded  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  HydranuS)  assisted  by  the  Daduch. 
The  lustral  ceremonies  being  performed,  the  novice 
was  required  to  place  his  feet  upon  the  skins  of  the 
victims  which  had  been  offered  to  Jupiter- Milichius, 
and  Jupiter-  Ctesius,  after  which  the  Mystagogue  ad- 
ministered to  him  the  oath,  which  obliged  him  to  ob- 
serve inviolable  secresy  on  all  subjects  connected 
with  the  mysteries.  The  initiation  being  thus  far 
accomplished,  the  mystes  pronounced  the  following 
sacred  formula :  "  I  have  drunk  the  meslin-drink  — 
Kukeon;  I  have  taken  the  goblet  from  the  shrine, 
and,  according  to  custom,  put  it  in  the  flasket,  and 
thence  back  again  into  the  shrine."  * 

Any  one,  as  may  readily  be  supposed,  could  not 
be  admitted  into  the  mysteries.  A  barbarian,  unless 
adopted  by  a  Greek,  whatever  his  merits  might  be, 
was  inevitably  excluded  from  the  eminent  distinc- 
tion, and  in  the  archonate  of  Euclides,  slaves  were 
not  even  permitted  to  enter  the  temple  of  Ceres. 
Not  only  murderers,  but  likewise  all  those  who  had 
committed  manslaughter,  however  guiltless  they' 
might  be  of  any  criminal  design,  forfeited  for  ever 
all  claims  to  so  hallowed  a  privilege.  A  blameless 
life,  a  legitimate  birth,  and  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
rights  and  prerogatives  of  a  freeman,  were  absolutely 
necessary  to  a  participation  of  the  sacred  mysteries. 
Even  claims  as  fair  and  well  founded  as  these  were 
required  first  to  be  sanctified  by  the  blood  of  bulls 

*  Silvestre  de  Sacy  thinks  this  formula  constituted  the  pass  or 
watchword  of  the  mystai. 


IN  ITS   SYMBOLICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  355 

and  swine,  before  they  could  procure  an  entrance  for 
their  possessor  into  the  coveted  institution.  This 
scrupulous  precaution  in  the  admission  of  members 
is  easily  accounted  for,  when  we  reflect  that  the 
governing  idea  which  pervaded  the  entire  Cerealic 
religion,  was  that  of  peace  and  war ;  or,  in  other 
words,  the  war  of  matter  with  spirit,  and  the  purga- 
tion of  the  former  by  the  latter ;  in  short,  it  was 
the  dogma  of  strife  and  reconciliation.  For,  accord- 
ing to  the  theological  system  of  the  heathens,  the 
universe,  considered  as  an  existence  or  reality  out  of 
God,  is  a  secession  or  apostasy,  and  constitutes  the 
dually  or  dyas  of  being.  Hence,  as  the  evil  can  only 
be  remedied  by  a  restitution  or  reunion,  therefore 
all  things  must  ultimately  again  return  to  God. 

The  members  of  the  lesser  mysteries  were  desig- 
nated as  the  Mustai —  the  initiated, — though  this 
term  was  also  employed  less  definitely,  or  had  a  more 
extensive  import ;  those  of  the  greater,  as  the  Ep6p- 
tai,  and  sometimes  as  the  Ephoroi,  both  names  sig- 
nifying seers  or  eye-witnesses.  The  title  of  Teletai 
likewise  denoted  a  grade  in  these  mysteries,  but 
whether  it  implied  perfection  attained  by  the  Mys- 
tai,*  or  had  reference  to  the  end  of  their  former  un- 
consecrated  lives,  cannot  now  be  determined.  From 
a  passage  in  Silvestre  de  Sacy's  "  Researches  into 
the  Mysteries  of  Paganism,"  taken  from  the  "  Com- 
mentary of  Olympiodorus  on  Plato's  Phaedon,"  it 
appears  that  the  Eleusinia  recognized  five  degrees 

*  In  speaking  of  the  initiated  of  both  mysteries,  in  the  course 
of  this  article,  I  shall  employ  Mystes  as  the  singular,  and  Mystai 
as  the  plural. 


356  THE    HEATHEN  RELIGION 

of  rank  among  the  initiated,  of  which  the  two  first 
were  confined  to  purifications  ;  the  third,  to  the  pre- 
paratory ceremonies ;  the  fourth  comprised  the  for- 
mal admission  into  the  lesser  mysteries,  and  con- 
ferred  the  name  of  Mystes  upon  the  initiated ;  and 
the  fifth,  which  consisted  in  the  Epoptia  or  Epoptic 
state,  and  which  *the  greater  mysteries  alone  could 
confer.  The  lapsed  were  doomed  to  pass  through 
five  stages  of  trial  and  penance,  before  they  could 
hope  to  be  restored  to  their  former  rank. 

The  ancients  attached  the  highest  importance  to 
mysteries,  and  especially  to  the  Eleusinian.  A  state- 
ment of  Isocrates,  contained  in  his  "  Paneervricus," 
may  suffice  to  illustrate  this  truth  :  "  When,"  says 
he,  "  after  the  abduction  of  her  daughter  Kore,  or 
Proserpine,  having  wandered  over  the  whole  earth  in 
search  of  her,  Demeter  arrived  in  our  country,  Attica, 
and  felt  anxious  to  express  her  obligations  towards 
our  ancestors,  on  account  of  certain  favors  which 
they  had  conferred  upon  her,  she  made  them  the 
recipients  of  the  two  greatest  blessings  which  mortals 
can  obtain  from  the  gods,  —  agriculture,  to  which 
we  are  indebted  that  we  need  not  live  like  brutes, 
and  the  mysteries,  which  fill  the  souls  of  those  who 
participate  in  them  with  the  sweetest  hopes  both  in 
this  and  the  future  world.*  Hence,  in  not  confining 
these  invaluable  boons  within  their  own  narrow 
limits,  but  by  disseminating  them  among  the  rest  of 
mankind,  the  Athenians  have  proved  themselves  the 


*  Demeter  is  the  Greek  name  for  Ceres,  who  again  is  synony- 
mous -with  the  Egyptian  Isis,  the  German  Hertha,  etc. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  357 

most  devoted  friends  and  ardent  admirers  of  the 
munificent  goddess." 

The  delight  with  which  the  ancients  celebrated  the 
mysteries  was  proverbial,  as  the  following  sentence 
attests  :  "  Oudeis  muoumenos  oduretai ;"  that  is, 
nemo  in  mysteriis  tristis :  in  the  mysteries,  no  one  is 
sad  !  One  of  the  causes  of  this  predilection  for  the 
mysteries  is  revealed  in  the  popular  creed  of  the 
heathen  religion,  that  as  the  uninitiated  must  con- 
tinue to  exist  in  the  mire  of  matter,  so  they  could 
expect  only  a  sad  end;  while  the  Mystai — as  we 
learn  from  Hemsterhuis  "  On  the  Dialogues  of  Lu- 
cian  "  —  would  enjoy  distinguished  honor — proed- 
ria,  in  the  spirit-world.  That  the  introduction  of 
agriculture  and  the  cereal  grains  into  Greece  and 
other  countries  ;  the  elucidation  of  physical  theology 
or  the  deified  personifications  of  Nature,  formed 
prominent  themes  of  contemplation,  reminiscences, 
and  instruction  among  the  Epoptai,  is  to  be  taken 
for  granted,  as  the  Eleusinia  were  sacred  to  Ceres,  a 
name  whose  comprehensive  import  included  all  those 
elements  and  agents  in  the  external  wTorld,  which  so 
essentially  contribute  towards  agrarian  prosperity. 

Having  advanced  the  doctrine  —  which  is  both 
mythologically  and  historically  true  —  that  Egypt 
was  the  cradle  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  Silvestre 
de  Sacy  adds  that  the  typical  representations  in  the 
mysteries  contained  nothing,  as  far  as  physical  na- 
ture is  concerned,  but  symbols  of  the  main  operations 
of  the  natural  world,  or,  to  use  his  own  language, 
"  Principales  operations  de  la  nature."  In  the 
greater  mysteries  at  least,  agreeably  to  the  general 
tenor  of  the  moral  theology  of  the  heathens,  piety 


358  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

and  virtue,  rewards  and  punishments,  likewise  con- 
stituted leading  subjects  of  profound  investigation 
and  earnest  reflection.  The  significant  symbol  of 
purity,  life,"  and  happiness,  among  the  ancients,  es- 
pecially in  the  ample  creed  of  the  mysteries,  was 
water.  Hermes,  the  Egyptian  Mercury,  and  the  first 
and  greatest  Mystagogos  of  all  mysteries,  bore  a  drink- 
offering  cup  in  his  hand,  as  the  emblem  of  his  holy 
profession.  The  mummy,  wrapped  up  in  its  chrys- 
alis folds,  and  clutching  a  water  jug,  patiently  and 
hopefully  awaited  a  blissful  resurrection.  Upon  the 
mummy  covers  in  the  catacombs  of  Egypt,  appeared 
the  consolatory  apophthegm,  "  The  cool  water  Osiris 
will  give."  Aquarius,  one  of  the  winter  or  northern 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  holds  a  water  jug,  to  denote  that 
he  is  the  conductor  of  the  souls  out  of  this  into  a 
higher  and  better  world. 

The  following  remarkable  passage  from  the  Gor- 
gias  of  Plato,  so  well  calculated  to  illustrate  this 
train  of  ideas,  we  quote  from  the  edition  of  Heindorf. 
The  Athenian  bee  first  calls  attention  to  the  doctrine 
according  to  which  life  was  regarded  as  wretched 
and  a  state  of  death,  our  bodies  as  real  graves,  and 
death  as  true  life.  After  these  remarks,  he  proceeds 
to  notice  the  emblematical  import  of  the  water  cask, 
and  then  adds :  "  Hence  in  the  spirit-world  —  adoti, 
the  excluded  or  uninitiated  —  amuetoi,  will  be  most 
unhappy,  and  doomed  to  carry  water  into  a  leaky 
cask  —  eis  ton  tetremenon pithon,  in  a  sieve  —  koskino, 
just  as  leaky." 

The  ethical  connection  of  water  with  the  actions 
and  the  fate  of  mankind,  will  further  appear  from  the 
subjoined  myth.     Of  the  fifty  daughters  of  Denaus, 


IN   ITS   SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  359 

king  of  Argos,  forty-eight  —  who  were  all  equally- 
guilty  of  the  atrocious  crime  of  having  murdered 
their  Egyptian  husbands  on  the  first  night  of  their 
nuptials  —  were  condemned  in  Hades  to  fill  a  vessel 
full  of  holes,  the  water  escaping  through  it  as  fast  as 
it  was  put  in.  Hence  their  labor  was  infinite,  and 
their  punishment  eternal!  Two  of  the  daughters  — 
some  authors  mention  only  one,  thus  augmenting 
the  number  of  the  delinquent  sisters  and  treacherous 
wives  —  Hypermnestra  and  Amymone,  preserved 
their  innocence,  while  they  proved  true  to  their  mar- 
ital vow,  and  became  renowned  as  the  discoverers  of 
fountains  in  Argos,  and  the  munificent  dispensers  of 
water  to  its  sandy,  arid  soil.  Amymone  has  even 
immortalized  her  name  as  the  fair  foundress  of  the 
Thesmaphorian  mysteries.  Mysteries  and  water ; 
water,  virtue,  and  happiness  ;  and  no  water,  vice,  and 
misery,  were,  in  that  remote  age  of  the  world,  cor- 
relative terms.  A  drop  of  water,  according  to  Christ, 
would  have  been  unutterable  bliss  to  the  voluptuous 
Dives  in  torment.  What  is  life  ?  what  agrarian  pur- 
suit without  water  ?  Its  absence  is  hell ;  with  its 
presence  there  may  be  heaven ! 

The  doctrines  taught  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries 
were  clearly  based  upon  the  Cerealic  laws  ;  for  the 
Cerealic  institutions  in  Attica,  and  other  countries, 
wTere  emphatically  Thesmophorian  ;  that  is,  festivals 
sacred  to  Ceres,  who  first  invited  the  attention  of 
mankind  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  the  use 
of  the  grains  and  fruits  of  the  earth.  Hence  one  of 
the  honorable  surnames  of  the  beneficent  goddess  is 
Thesmophora,  in  allusion  to  this  circumstance ;  for 
the  name   is  derived  from  thesmon  and  phorai^  to 


360  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

bring  or  carry  the  laws,  —  leg-ifera.  Through  the 
typical  traditions  of  a  primeval  age,  represented  in 
mystic  scenes,  the  prominent  cosmic  agencies,  placed 
in  juxtaposition  with  the  salient  productions  of  their 
creative  energies,  were  brought  into  proximity  with 
human  vision,  and  man  beheld  the  demiurgus,  Jupi- 
ter, with  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  embodied  word 
of  wisdom,  Hermes  ;  Ceres,  the  absent,  under  the 
name  of  Kore,  the  maiden  or  daughter,  also  called 
Proserpine :  the  earth  in  the  winter  season ;  and 
Ceres,  the  present,  distinguished  as  the  recovered 
Kore,  or  the  maiden  Proserpine  :  the  earth  in  its  re- 
stored organic  life  and  vigor  ;  the  metempsychosis 
and  purification  of  the  soul ;  the  lower  regions  with 
Pluto  and  Proserpine ;  Triptolemus,  lasion,  Andro- 
geus,  Theseus,  and  all  the  great  kings,  planters,  and 
terra-cultors  of  Attica,  together  with  the  symbolical 
display  of  the  time  and  manner  in  which  these  civil- 
izers  and  benefactors  of  the  human  race  introduced 
into  their  country,  from  distant  lands,  the  cereal  grains, 
the  hortulan  fruits,  and  agrarian  pursuits  and  laws,  or 
were  instrumental  in  disseminating  the  knowledge 
and  use  of  them  among  the  rest  of  mankind.  From 
such  scenic  representations,  interpreted  through  the 
media  of  tradition  and  mystic  symbols,  the  most 
important  theological  doctrines  were  deduced  and 
communicated  to  the  studious  Epoptai ;  especially 
were  the  dogmas  of  a  Supreme  Being,  the  originator 
and  controller  of  the  universe,  and  the  perfectible 
nature  and  exalted  destination  of  man,  earnestly  im- 
pressed upon  their  attention.  From  these  premises 
it  necessarily  followed  that  the  momentous  truths 
involved  in  the  faith  in  a  palingenesia  and  immor- 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  361 

tality  of  the  soul,  formed  a  principal  feature  in  the 
scholastic  course  of  the  Attic  mysteries:  a  doctrine 
which  obtained  its  origin,  or  at  least  its  confirma- 
tion, in  the  attentive  study  of  the  seed-grain  in  its 
various  stages  of  decay  and  development,  from  the 
time  that  it  is  buried  in  the  soil  till  its  friiffiferous 
maturity.  This  striking  and  interesting  physical 
phenomenon  the"  Saviour  of  the  world  has  hallowed 
as  the  symbol  and  pledge  of  the  same  paramount 
and  consoling  truth.* 

Leland,  the  author  of  "  The  Advantage  and  Ne- 
cessity of  the  Christian  "Revelation,"  etc.,  speaking 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as  it 
was  taught  in  the  mysteries,  expresses  the  opinion 
that  "  A  future  state  was  not  taught  there  in  grave 
and  serious  discourses,  so  as  to  instruct  the  people 
to  form  proper  notions  concerning  it,  but  by  shows 
and  representations  which  might  strike  the  senses, 
and  make  some  present  impression  on  the  imagina- 
tion, but  were  not  fitted  to  enlighten  the  understand- 
ing, and  produce  a  real  and  lasting  conviction  in  the 
mind."  This  opinion  the  learned  doctor  founds  upon 
the  denial  of  that  article  of  faith  by  some  of  the  later 
Athenians ;  upon  the  declaration  of  Cebes,  one  of 
Socrates's  disciples,  who  told  his  master  that  the 
doctrine  he  taught  concerning  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  and  a  future  state," "  met  with  little  credit  among 
men  ;  "  and  upon  the  fact  that  Socrates  himself  made 
the  statement  that  his  doctrine  was  not  believed  by  the 
generality,  etc.,  I  will  only  add,  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  taught  in  the  Christian 

*  John,  twelfth  chapter  and  twenty-fourth  verse. 

31 


362  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

church  without  "representations  and  shows,"  and 
"  in  grave  and  serious  discourses,"  and  that  —  I  make 
the  assertion  with  profound  grief — notwithstanding 
this  contrariety  in  teaching,  the  unbelievers  in  this 
doctrine  number  legions ! 

The  time  which  elapsed  before  the  initiated  into 
the  lesser  mysteries  could  be  received  into  the  great- 
er, has  been  variously  estimated  from  a  period  of  six 
months  to  that  of  a  year,  and  even  to  that  of  five 
years.  Father  Petau  advocates  the  first ;  Plutarch, 
the  second;  and  Scaliger,  the  third.  The  greater 
Eleusinian  festival  opened  on  the  fifteenth  of  the 
month  Boedromion,  which,  according  to  the  discrep- 
ant theory  of  different  authors,  corresponded  either 
to  September  or  November.  "  But,"  observes  Gil- 
lies, "  as  the  Attic  year  was  lunar,  the  months  of 
that  year  could  not  exactly  correspond  to  those  of 
ours.  In  the  computation  of  their  months,  the 
Greeks  agreed  not  with  other  nations,  nor  even 
among  themselves."  On  the  first  day  of  the  festival, 
the  initiates  of  the  lesser  mysteries  assembled  and 
took  the  necessary  measures  for  their  admission  into 
the  greater :  it  was  the  day  of  preparation.  The 
second  day  borrowed  its  name  from  the  hortatory 
phrase  Alade  Mystai —  to  the  sea,  ye  initiated;  for 
on  this  day  the  initiated  or  Mystai  marched  in  pro- 
cession to  the  Saronic  gulf,  or  at  least  to  one  of  its 
inlets.  On  account  of  its  saline  properties,  sea-water 
was  deemed  among  the  ancients  to  be  especially 
efficacious  in  the  cure  of  physical  maladies,  and  the 
washing  and  bathing  in  it  from  religious  motives 
was  therefore  typical  of  moral  parity.  The  thud 
day  was  fast-day,  and  it  was  spent  in  a  total  absti- 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  363 

nonce  from  all  sensual  enjoyments.  It  was  observed 
in  commemoration  of  the  sorrow  of  the  goddess 
Ceres,  on  account  of  the  abduction  of  her  daughter, 
fondly  denominated  Kore,  the  maiden,  but  commonly 
known  as  Proserpine,  by  the  enamoured  and  inexo- 
rable Pluto.  As  an  offering  was  made  to  Ceres  and 
Proserpine  during  the  festival,  the  presumption  is 
that  the  fourth  day  of  the  celebration  was  dedicated 
to  this  solemnity.  The  fifth  day  was  called  the 
LampadOn  Hemera,  the  day  of  torches ;  thus  distin* 
guished  because  on  it  the  initiated  went  two  and 
two  in  procession,  each  bearing  a  torch  in  his  hand, 
into  the  temple  of  Ceres  at  Eleusis,  the,  Daduch,  with 
a  torch  the  size  of  which  corresponded  to  his  superior 
dignity,  leading  the  way.  The  torches  were  passed 
from  hand  to  hand,  and  the  smoke  and  flames  which 
issued  from  them  were  considered  to  possess  a  puri- 
fying virtue.  Their  introduction  into  the  mysteries 
is  ascribed  by  mythology  to  the  circumstance  that 
Ceres,  while  perambulating  the  whole  earth  in  search 
of  her  lost  child,  illumined  her  wearisome  path  with 
torchlight.  Iacchus,  the  son  and  ward  of  Ceres,  and 
one  of  the  surnames  of  Bacchus,  gave  appellative  dis- 
tinction to  the  sixth  and  most  solemn  dav  of  the  festi- 
7al.  On  this  emphatically  jubilant  day,  young  Iac- 
chus, thus  named  from  iachein — the  same  as  clamare 
in  Latin,  in  allusion  to  the  shouts  which  the  votaries 
of  Bacchus  raised  at  the  festival  of  their  god,  being 
crowned  with  a  myrtle- wreath,  was  carried  from  the 
Ceramicus,  a  public  walk  at  Athens,  to  Eleusis.  The 
initiated,  likewise  crowned  with  myrtle  and  display- 
ing the  usual  Bacchus  symbols  —  the  thyrsus,  ivy 
leaves,  etc.,  followed  the  youthful  deity  in  solemn 


3G4  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

procession.  The  frequent  exclamations  of  Iacchus, 
or  rather  Iacchos,  and  the  chanting  of  paeans,  still 
farther  distinguished  this  procession  from  that  of  the 
torches,  at  once  so  stately  and  so  taciturn.  Iacchus 
had  a  temple  at  Athens,  which  bore  his  name,  and 
was  called  laccheion ;  he  was  worshipped  as  the  me- 
diator between  Ceres  and  her  votaries,  and  hence  his 
frequent  invocation  by  the  initiated  on  this  occasion.* 
On  the  seventh  dav  the  initiated  returned  to  Athens 
by  the  sacred  road,  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  stopping 
at  various  places  rendered  sacred  by  tradition,  or  sig- 
nificant from  their  connection  with  religion  ;  as,  at 
the  site  where  the  first  fig-tree  grew,  and  hence  called 
the  holy  fig-tree ;  at  the  bridge  which  spanned  the 
river  Cephissus,  etc.  At  the  latter  place  they  were 
met  by  many  of  the  people  of  the  neighborhood, 
when  both  parties  indulged  towards  each  other  in 
good-humored  jests  and  railleries,  and  this  mutual 
jocosity  and  alternate  play  of  wit  was  denominated 

Gephurismds  —  the  teazing  at  the  bridge. 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  remark  here,  that 
the  halt  of  the  mystic  procession  at  the  bridge  was, 
properly  speaking,  made  in  compliment  of  the  river 

Cephissus,  with  a  view  to  commemorate  the  practice 

*  Young  Iacchus  is  the  same  as  young  Bacchus,  and  therefore 
Bacchus,  properly  so  called,  was  his  father,  while  Ceres  claimed 
the  relation  of  maternity  to  him.  Hence,  mythologically  speak- 
ing, he  is  the  joint  offspring  of  Ceres  —  the  earth  or  dry  element, 
and  of  Bacchus  —  the  wet,  fluid  constituents  of  the  globe,  and 
consequently  the  mediator  between  Ceres  and  her  zealous  wor- 
shippers, whose  hope  was-based  upon  the  bliss  of  living  icqters 
after  this  life,  of  which  hope  the  water  jug  in  the  mysteries  was 
the  emblem. 


IX   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  365 

of  the  ancient  Phoenicians,  from  whom  the  Cerealic 
religion  was  partly  derived,  to  place  the  images  of 
their  tutelar  deities,  Hercules,  Melkarth,  etc.,  upon 
rafts  and  boats  on  the  water.  According  to  Kanne, 
these  Phoenician  gods  were  the  Patachi  —  the  door- 
keepers and  key-bearers  of  Hades,  to  which  they 
conveyed  the  released  souls  of  mortals  upon  Char- 
on's boat.  Religious  ceremonies,  symbolical  of  these 
facts,  were  no  doubt  also  performed  at  the  Attic 
bridge ;  yet  history  is  silent  or  unsatisfactory  upon 
the  subject. 

The  eighth  day  bore  the  appellation  of  Epidauria, 
which  appears  to  have  been  sacred  to  JEsculapius, 
the  god  of  medicine  and  the  symbol  of  the  mature 
autumnal  harvest,  and  to  have  borrowed  its  name 
from  Epidaurus,  a  town  in  the  north  of  Argolis,  in 
Peloponnesus,  chiefly  dedicated  to  the  hygienic 
god,  who  had  a  famous  temple  there.  If  mythic 
record  can  be  relied  upon,  it  once  happened  on  this 
day  that  iEsculapius  came  too  late  to  the  festival, 
and  had  therefore  to  be  initiated  by  a  posteal  or 
after-consecration.  From  this  precedent,  so  encour- 
aging to  the  dilatory,  all  late  comers  were  permitted" 
to  enjoy  the  same  unenviable  privilege.  In  his  Eleu- 
sinian  connections  with  Ceres,  ^Esculapius  is  the 
same  as  Erisichthon,  of  whom  mention  has  already 
been  made  :  a  fact  which  sufficiently  accounts  for 
his  presence  at  the  solemnities  of  the  goddess. 

Plemochoe  was  the  term  which  distinguished  the 
ninth  and  last  day  of  the  Eleusinian  solemnities. 
It  owed  its  distinctive  appellation  to  a  tureen  or  flat- 
bottomed  earthen  vessel ;  for  on  this  day  two  vessels 
answering  to  this  description  were  filled  with  wine, 

31* 


366  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

when  the  contents  of  the  one  was  poured  out  to- 
wards the  rising,  and  that  of  the  other  towards  the 
setting  sun.  While  the  libation  was  offered,  the 
initiated  —  as  it  appears  from  Proclus  on  Plato  — 
looked  alternately  towards  heaven  and  earth,  as  if 
they  were  there  recognizing  and  adoring  the  father 
and  mother  of  all  things,  pronouncing  as  they  did  so, 
the  words  Uie  Tokuie. 

The  final  and  most  solemn  consecration,  the 
Epopteia,  which  was  performed  in  the  vestibule  or 
outer  court  of  the  temple  of  Ceres,  is  generally  be- 
lieved to  have  taken  place  in  the  night  of  the  sixth 
day  of  the  festival.  On  this  momentous  and  thrill- 
ing occasion,  the  Hieroceryx  commanded  the  pro- 
fane to  withdraw.  The  oath  prescribed  to  the  initi- 
ated was  again  administered  to  them,  and  their  assent 
to  the  mystic  formulas,  to  which  they  had  already 
been  obliged  to  subscribe  in  the  lesser  mysteries, 
probably  repeated.  Upon  this  the  Mystai  put  on 
new  suits  of  clothes,  —  the  symbol  of  moral  regener- 
ation, over  which  a  fawn  skin,  as  the  finishing  grace 
in  the  mystic  toilette,  was  thrown  :  it  was  emblemat- 
ical of  the  beauty,  the  diversity,  and  the  symmetry 
of  creation.  Eudaimon  and  Olbios  —  be  happy,  and 
the  good  demon  accompany  you,  were  the  congratu- 
latory expressions  with  which  the  honored  and  de- 
lighted Mystai  were  now  saluted.  These  ceremonies 
being  concluded,  a  profound  darkness  suddenly  en- 
shrouded the  assembly;  lightning  flashed,  thunder 
rolled,  and  unearthly  noises  resounded  through  the 
apartment,  while  monstrous  forms  appeared  on  all 
sides,  filling  the  recent  Mystai  with  horror  and  con- 
sternation,—  all   symbolical   devices,   indicative   of 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  367 

the  primeval  struggles  of  the  Demiurgus  with  chaos, 
and  of  the  disorder  and  confusion  which  prevail  in 
the  unimproved  and  unadorned  state  of  the  moral 
and  physical  world.  The  scene  again  suddenly 
shifted,  and  the  affrighted  Mystai,  conducted  by  the 
Mystagogos,  were  introduced  into  the  inner  temple 
or  sanctuary  of  Ceres,  which  was  brilliantly  illumi- 
nated, and  where  stood  the  statue  of  the  goddess 
magnificently  adorned,  and  refulgent  with  a  preter- 
natural splendor.  This  truly  enchanting  stage  of 
the  Epoptic  career  was*  denominated  Autopsia,  self- 
seeing;  and  the  happy  aspirant  after  mystic  honors 
was  rewarded  with  a  myrtle  crown.  His  eyes  were 
dazzled  with  the  intense  glare  of  light  that  every- 
where met  his  astonished  gaze  ;  sweet  and  enraptur- 
ing tones  of  harmony  fell  upon  his  delighted  ears ; 
and  his  soul,  charmed  by  the  magic  influence  of  the 
autopsial  state,  was  transported  in  the  contemplation 
of  the  fairest  forms  and  the  loveliest  scenery  in  nature: 
it  was  a  foretaste  of  the  anticipated  union  with  the 
immortal  gods  ;  a  cosmic  drama,  in  which  the  Hie- 
rophant  represented  the  demiurgus,  Jupiter  ;  the  Da- 
duch,  the  sun  ;  the  Epibomius,  the  moon  ;  and  the 
Hieroceryx,  Hermes  —  the  logos,  or  all-pervading 
spirit  of  the  universe.*     At  last  the  solemnities  were 

*  Beside  numerous  priestesses  and  inferior  priests,  four  chief 
priests  figured  preeminently  in  the  sacred  mysteries,  of  whom  the 
Hierophant  —  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  Eumolpus,  who  is  also 
known  as  the  Mystagogos  and  the  Prophetes  —  was  the  honored 
head,  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  Attica.  The  next  in  rank  was  the 
Daduch,  the  torchrbearer,  whose  duty  it  was,  in  conjunction  with 
the  Hierophant,  to  offer  prayers  and  sing  hymns  to  Ceres  and 
Proserpine.     Like  his  chief,  he  could  boast  pf  a  diadem,  but  a 


363  THE    HEATHEN   RELIGION 

closed  with  the  words  Kogx  Ompax,  which  in  their 
elementary,  syllabic  form  resolve  themselves  into  the 
tripartite  sentence  of  Kogx,  Om,  and  Pax,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Wilford  on  Jones's  "  Asiatic  Researches,-' 
are  synonymous  with  the  Hindoo  dismissal  formula 
contained  in  the  words  Cansha,  Om,  and  Pacsha, 
with  which  the  Bramins  are  still  in  the  habit  of  con- 
cluding their,  public  worship.  Cansha  or  Canscha 
denotes  the  object  of  supreme  desire  ;  Om  (Aum)  is 
the  holy  term  by  which  the  Supreme  Being,  Para- 
brahma,  considered  in  his  unrevealed,  absolute  state, 
is  designated  ;  and  Pacsha  means  successively  change, 
series,  order,  duty.  Beside  vocal  and  instrumental 
music,  the  greater  Eleusinian  mysteries  were  also 
celebrated  with  public  shows  and  gymnastic  exhi- 
bitions, which    lasted  several  days  ;  but   of  all  the 

throne  was  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  the  former.  According 
to  the  import  of  his  name,  his  functions  required  the  Epibomius  to 
officiate  at  the  altar.  These  priests,  in  the  order  in  -which  they 
have  been  described,  represented  the  demiurgus  or  Jupiter,  the 
sun  and  the  moon,  while  the  illustrious  Hieroceryx  typified 
Hermes,  the  active  mundane  intelligence,  and  coordinate  counsel- 
lor of  the  demiurgus.  Purple  robes  and  myrtle  crowns  were  the 
Ladies  which  distinguished  these  high  dignitaries  in  common. 
Among  the  inferior  priests  may  be  mentioned  the  Ilydranus,  who 
superintended  the  lustral  ceremonies  of  the  Eleusinian  candidates ; 
the  Spondophori,  who  offered  the  libations ;  the  Pyrphori,  who 
carried  the  fire ;  the  Hieraules,  or  sacred  flutist ;  the  Iacchagogos, 
or  the  conductor  of  the  Iacchus  procession,  etc.  All  the  priests, 
without  distinction  of  name  or  rank,  washed  themselves  with  the 
juice  of  the  hemlock — Conium  Maculatum  —  to  promote  conti- 
nence.  The  appellative  title  of  the  priestesses  of  Ceres  and 
Proserpine  was  Hierophantides.  Their  lives  and  functions  were 
subject  to  the  supervision  of  a  chief  priestess,  who  administered 
the  consecration  rites  to  the  initiated  of  her  own  sex. 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  3G9 

spectacles  which  distinguished  their  festivities,  the 
Taurilia  or  bull-fights  were  perhaps  the  most  signifi- 
cant as  well  as  interesting.  I  shall  therefore  make 
them  the  concluding  theme  of  the  Eleusinian  inves- 
tigations. They  were  celebrated  at  the  close  of  the 
great  Eleusinian  festival,  and,  according  to  Aristidcs, 
the  prize  which  was  awarded  to  the  successful  com- 
batants of  this  symbolical  game,  consisted  in  fruits 
of  the  earth  ;  for  Ceres,  in  whose  honor  the  taurilia 
were  exhibited,  having  introduced  the  knowledge  of 
agriculture,  her  votaries  aimed  only  to  be  rewarded 
with  her  gifts,  —  the  means  of  their  strength  and 
agility  in  the  tauro-machian  contests ;  contests  which 
were  not  maintained  by  men  who  had  forfeited  their 
lives,  or  observed  for  the  gratification  of  a  brutal 
pleasure,  as  was  the  case  with  the  gladiatorial  shows 
of  the  Romans,  or  whose  object  was  to  afford  period- 
ical amusement  to  the  elite  of  the  nation  by  the 
ruthless  perpetration  of  deeds  of  blood  and  cruelty, 
as  is  the  case  with  the  Fiesta  de  Tows,  or  bull-fight 
of  the  Spanish  people,  but  by  virtuous  and  eminent 
citizens  —  the  Genestatoi,  as  Artemidorus  calls  them 
—  and  for  important  religious  purposes  :  religionis 
causa,  says  Levius.  The  taurilia  were  observed  both 
on  foot  and  on  horseback,  and  the  combatants  might 
be  either  attired  or  naked.  Of  the  method  of  coping 
on  horseback  with  the  taurian  antagonists,  some 
idea  may  be  formed  from  Suetonius's  life  of  the 
emperor  Claudius,  where  the  historian  mentions 
mounted  Thessalians  qui  feros  tauros  ad  terrain  cor- 
nibus  detraliunt.  They  who  performed  such  feats 
were  denominated  taurelates,  bull-lowerers,  and  ke- 
raelkes,  horn-drawers.     Similar  scenes  are  represented 


370  TIIE   HEATHEN   RELIGION 

upon  coins,  vases,  relievos,  etc.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  fables  of  the  Minotaurs,  Centaurs, 
and  Hippo- Centaurs,  had  their  origin  in  the  gymnas- 
tic feats  performed  in  the  taurilia,  which  consisted 
now  and  then  in  bearing  off  a  young  beast  upon  the 
athletic  shoulders  of  the  stalwart  tauro-machist,'  or 
upon  those  of  his  fiery  steed.  The  beasts  most  gen- 
erally employed  in  the  labors  of  agriculture  among 
the  ancients,  were  those  of  the  ox  kind  ;  and  as"  Ceres 
was  the  adored  founderess  of  agrarian  pursuits, 
which  required  the  aid  of  those  useful  animals,  they 
had  to  be  hunted  down,  tamed,  and  broken  to  the 
yoke;  and  one  of  the  objects  of  the  taurilia  celebra- 
tion was  to  commemorate  these  facts. 

The  Cerealic  goddess  deserved  the  most  unbound- 
ed gratitude  of  her  happy  people,  —  the  manly  tillers 
of  the  soil,  the  planters  and  sowers  of  the  cereal 
grains,  and  the  enjoyera  of  rural  abundance  and 
social  prosperity  through  her  propitious  influence. 
Hence  they  offered  to  her  taurian  victims ;  made 
libations  to  her  of  their  blood,  which  they  poured 
upon  the  earth,  the  prolific  lap  of  the  patron  goddess ; 
and  burned  their  flesh,  for  a  sweet  savor,  upon  her 
numerous  altars.  Heaven  may  be  justly  regarded 
as  the  resplendent  archetype  of  the  Eleusinian  tau- 
rilia ;  for  in  the  glittering  path  of  the  ecliptic,  the 
sons  of  Zeus,  Perseus  and  Hercules,  as  also  Cephe- 
us,  once  king  of  sable  Ethiopia,  are,  as  they  were  in 
the  remote  ages  of  antiquity,  puissant  wrestlers  with 
the  zodiacal  beasts,  which  they  subdue  and  drive  in 
triumph  towards  Ceres-Chthonia,  or  the  earth,*  bring- 

*  They  bring  the  northern  and  southern  signs  of  the  zodiac 


IN   ITS    SYMBOLICAL   DEVELOPMENT.  371 

ing  heaven  and  earth  in  prolific  union,  and  thus  real- 
ize the  conditions  of  every  agrarian  blessing.  A 
herdsman,  Bootes,  is  one  of  the  northern  constella- 
tions. A  Sagittarius,  or  archer,  Chiron,  one  of  the 
greatest  heroes  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  be- 
sides a  centaur — partly  man  and  partly  bull  —  is 
likewise  translated  to  the  heavens,  and  when  the  sun 
enters  his  constellation,  it  is  at  that  period  in  autumn 
when  the  chase  was  begun  among  the  ancients  :  the 
season  at  which  the  taurilia  were  celebrated.  More- 
over, there  is  a  southern  constellation  distinguished 
as  the  Taurus,  the  bull,  which  comprises  a  numerous 
herd  of  bovine  cattle,  in  the  two  fields  or  clusters  of 
stars,  composed  of  the  Hyades  and  the  Pleiades. 
Near  the  feet  of  Taurus,  Orion  has  assumed  his  zo- 
diacal position,  a  god-descended  giant,  who  boasted 
that  there  was  not  an  animal  upon  the  earth  which 
he  could  not  conquer,  and  who  was  indeed,  like 
Nimrod,  a  mighty  hunter;  and  in  heaven,  where  he 
reigns  as  one  of  the  brightest  constellations  in  the 
solar  orbit,  he  is  still  armed  with  belt  and  sword, 
combating  with  the  beasts  of  the  celestial  Chios, 
taming  wild  nature  like  Ceres,  and  rendering  heaven 
propitious  to  the  happiness  of  mankind,  as  did  the 
Cerealic  goddess  the  plastic  earth.  Finally,  Perseus 
and  Hercules,  the  indomitable  wrestlers  in  the  solar 
sphere,  take  diligent  care  that  the  sun-god  Taurus 
shall  be  ready  to  wield  his  sceptre  over  the  northern 
hemisphere,  at  the  precise  moment  when  the  vernal 
equinox   may  demand   his  refulgent   presence,    and 

continually  under  that  solar  influence  which  is  most  propitious  to 
the  earth. 


372  THE   HEATHEN   RELIGION,    ETC. 

Ceres    shall    have  found  her   fair   daughter  Proser- 
pine. 

In  closing  these  investigations,  the  author  pre- 
sumes to  indulge  the  hope  that  the  deities  who 
£gure  in  these  pages  may  everywhere  be  treated 
with  that  deference  which  is  justly  due  to  beings  of 
so  divine  a  nature  and  illustrious  a  rank,  and  that 
the  symbolical  garniture  in  which  their  eventful 
lives  and  exalted  functions  are  clothed,  may  reveal 
to  the  reader  the  unlimited  care  and  impartial  nature 
of  the  adorable  providence  which  God  displays  to- 
wards mankind,  irrespective  of  creed  or  name. 


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the  doctrines  and  policy  of  the  Jesuits,  should  be  read  by  all  who  candidly  desire 
true  Information  on  that  subject.  Indeed,  the  whole  work  has  given  us  delight, 
and  we  feel  satisfied  that,  than  these  lectures,  it  would  be  Impossible  to  have  any 
better  introduction  to  the  study  of  French  literature  ai  existing  In  what  has  been 
termed  the  Augustan  age  of  France.  The  translation  appears  to  have  been  very 
faithfully  made  by  Mr.  Kirk,  who  has  displayed  his  talents  in  a  new  department, 
by  rendering  the  French  poetry  with  which  the  lectured  are  Interspersed,  Into 
English  rhyme." 

"  It  Is  a  book  to  go  upon  the  '  first-rate'  literary  shelf."  —Congregntionalist,  Bost. 

"  This  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  valuable  additions  to  our  higher  liter- 
ature that  has  been  given  to  the  public  of  late."  —  Evening  TdtQraph,  Boston. 

"  It  unfolds  to  us  more  fully  than  any  other  work  we  remember  to  have  seen 
the  vast,  power  which  characterized  French  literature  at  a  certain  period."  — 
♦    Christum  Observer,  1'hiUuUlphia. 

gn— — — ~**8 

8 


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VALUABLE   BOOKS,    PUBLISHED    BY 


THE 


MOTHERS   OE  THE   BIBLE. 


B  Y 


MRS.    S.    G.    ASHTON. 


WITH 


AN     INTRODUCTION     BY     EEV.    A.    L.    STONE. 


Plain  cloth,  $1.25  ;  gilt,  $1.75  ;  calf,  gilt,  $2.50. 


"  This  volume  conimend3  itself  to  our  favor  when  we  notice  the  name  of  the 
writer  of  the  introduction.  "VVe  entertain  for  Mr.  Stone  the  most  profound  respect. 
As  a  writer,  he  has  peculiar  merit ;  and  in  all  respects  he  is  a  man.  Ills  com- 
mendation would  give  us  confidence  to  endorse  any  work  he  had  examined.  The 
'  Mothers '  are  described  with  a  good  deal  of  feeling,  and  with  power,  and  perhaps 
we  might  say,  with  genius  •,  fur  the  author  is  quick  in  detecting  character  iroin 
trifling  Incidents.  The  book  will  interest  every  lover  of  the  Bible.  In  the  execu- 
tion of  the  work,  the  publishers  deserve  all  praise.  Mr.  Jewett  has  here  given  us 
the  handsomest  volume,  fur  the  price,  we  have  ever  seen."—  Plough,  Loom  and 
Anvil,  2T.  Y. 

"A  valuable  as  well  as  a  beautiful  book.  It  contains  accounts  of  the  women  of 
the  scripture  who  brought  up  children,  and  its  object  is  to  show  what  are  the  best 
and  most  scriptural  modes  of  educating  the  young.  It  will  please  our  religious 
readers,  and  suggest  many  useful  ideas  to  mothers."  —  Dailj  Courant,  Hartford. 

"Here  is  a  charming  book  which  every  Christian  mother  should  possess."  — 
Ind.  Democrat,  Concord. 

"An  invaluable  volume,  a  precious  offering,  which  we  trust  will  find  its  way  to 
many  a  youthful  hand,  to  many  a  maternal  bosom."  —  American  Courier. 

"The  author  has  a  noble  theme,  and  faithfully  has  it  been  unfolded  and  en- 
forced."— Christian  Chronicle,  Philadelphia. 

"  It  is  such  a  book  that  no  one  but  a  lady  could  have  written,  and  such  an  one 
as  no  lady  can  fail  to  enjoy  in  reading."  —  Evening  Traveller,  Boston. 

"  It  is  the  product  of  a  beautiful  mind,  evidently  under  the  guidance  of  a  truly 
Christian  and  devout  spirit."  —  Puritan  Recorder. 

"  It  is  a  good  book,  and  will  repay  more  than  one  reading  by  all  upon  whom  rests 
the  Joyful  responsibility  of  maternity."  —  Congrcgationalist. 


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